Abstract
IN this essay, read before the Congress of Science and Art held at Hamburg in September last, the author briefly explains in a popular manner some of the more important evidence in favour of evolution afforded by palseontological researches and discoveries. After alluding to the old belief in the separate creation and immutability of species, Dr. Koken mentions Lamarck's theory, and then passes on to the revolution in scientific thought and belief brought about by Darwin's work. With a brief reference to Waagen's investigations and theories in regard to the mutations of ammonites, and the expression of the belief that what holds good in this case will also apply to other groups, he proceeds to cite some of the most striking instances of the descent of one group from another. In regard to mammals, it is considered that the earliest forms were nearly allied to the Insectivora, and that from these were developed the Creodont Carnivora, from which subsequently branched off the placentals on the one hand and the marsupials on the other. Allusion is next made to the importance of Archæopteryx, as in some respects a connecting link between birds and reptiles. Attention is then called to the important evidence which has been obtained during the last few years as to the relationship between the anomodont reptiles and mammals on the one hand, and between the former and the labyrinthodont amphibians on the other. A wide cleft still, however, separates amphibians from fishes—a cleft which, in the author's opinion, is in no wise spanned by the lung-fishes, the amphibian resemblances of which he believes to be largely adaptive.
Palaeontologie und Descendenzlehre.
By E. Koken. Pp. 33; illustrated. (Jena: G. Fischer, 1902.)
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L., R. Palaeontologie und Descendenzlehre . Nature 66, 126 (1902). https://doi.org/10.1038/066126a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/066126a0