Evolution and animal life; an elementary discussion of facts, processes, laws and theories relating to the life and evolution of animals (1907) (14773115975)

Identifier: evolutionanimall00jord (find matches)

Title: Evolution and animal life; an elementary discussion of facts, processes, laws and theories relating to the life and evolution of animals

Year: 1907 (1900s)

Authors: Jordan, David Starr, 1851-1931 Kellogg, Vernon L. (Vernon Lyman), 1867-1937

Subjects: Evolution

Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and Company

Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library

Digitizing Sponsor: MBLWHOI Library

Text Appearing Before Image:

us adamanteus. (Photograph by W. K. Fisher.) on our registers to-day are certainly far less than half of the •>• */ millions which actually exist. In botany we find the same conditions. There are fewerknown species of plants than animals by half, and they are moreeasily preserved and handled, while the work of collection andinvestigation proceeds on a scale even more extensive, yet itwould be a bold statement to say that we know to-day half thespecies of plants that exist. All this refers to the forms now living, without reference tothe host which composes their long ancestry, extending back-ward toward the dawn of creation. The species have comedown through the geological ages, changing in form and func-tion to meet the varying needs of changing environment. This VARIETY AND UNITY IN LIFE 17 enumeration takes no account of the still vaster myriads of formsalmost endlessly varied which have perished utterly in thepressure of environment, leaving no trace in the line of descent.

Text Appearing After Image:

£ tf o. rtt-i 5o-*jo s o 00 • rt Of these extinct forms of animals and plants we know a few,one here and another there: here a bone, there a tooth, here a 18 EVOLUTION AND ANIMAL LIFE mass of shells, there a piece of petrified wood, an insect in themarl bed or a leaf preserved flat in the shale. Each of thesefossils is a record of past life, true beyond impeachment, butthe fragments are so few, so scattered, so broken, as to giveonly hints of the history they represent. Moreover, as we extend our studies of species we find thatthey change with space as wrell as with time. These changes

Evolution und Tierleben eine elementare Erörterung von Fakten, Prozessen, Gesetzen und Theorien 1907 Buchillustrationen Naturgeschichte botanische Illustrationen Botanik Insekten Tiere und Pflanzen Evolution Biologie Zoologie Bilder aus dem Internetarchiv

1907

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