Seite - 342 - in The Origin of Species
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342 ORIGIN OF SPECIES
not a cave or true lacustrine bed is known belonging to the
age of our secondary or palaeozoic formations.
y^ But the imperfection in the geological record largely re-
sults from another and more important cause than any of the
foregoing; namely, from the several formations being sep-
arated from each other by wide intervals of time. This doc-
trine has been emphatically admitted by many geologists and
palaeontologists, who, like E. Forbes, entirely disbelieve in
the change of species. When we see the formations tabulated
in written works, or when we follow them in nature, it is
difficult to avoid believing that they are closely consecutive.
But we know, for instance, from Sir R. Murchison's great
work on Russia, what wide gaps there are in that country
between the superimposed formations
; so it is in North
America, and in many other parts of the world. The most
skilful geologist, if his attention had been confined exclusively
to these large territories, would never have suspected that,
during the periods which were blank and barren in his own
country, great piles of sediment, charged with new and pe-
culiar forms of life, had elsewhere been accumulated. And
if, in each separate territory, hardly any idea can be formed
of the length of time which has elapsed between the consecu-
tive formations, we may infer that this could nowhere be
ascertained. The frequent and great changes in the mineral-
ogical composition of consecutive formations, generally im-
plying great changes in the geography of the surrounding
lands, whence the sediment was derived, accord with the
belief of vast intervals of time having elapsed between each
formation.
C' We can, I think, see why the geological formations of each
\ region are almost invariably intermittent; that is, have not
1 followed each other in close sequence. Scarcely any fact
struck me more when examining many hundred miles of the
South American coasts, which have been upraised several
hundred feet within the recent period, than the absence of
any recent deposits sufficiently extensive to last for even a
short geological period. Along the whole west coast, which
is inhabited by a peculiar marine fauna, tertiary beds are so
poorly developed, that no record of several successive and
peculiar marine faunas will probably be preserved to a distant
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Buch The Origin of Species"
The Origin of Species
- Titel
- The Origin of Species
- Autor
- Charles Darwin
- Verlag
- P. F. Collier & Son
- Ort
- New York
- Datum
- 1909
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 10.5 x 16.4 cm
- Seiten
- 568
- Schlagwörter
- Evolutionstheorie, Evolution, Theory of Evolution, Naturwissenschaft, Natural Sciences
- Kategorien
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Biologie
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 5
- AN HISTORICAL SKETCH of the Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species 9
- INTRODUCTION 21
- Variation under Domestication 25
- Variation under Nature 58
- Struggle for Existence 76
- Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest 93
- Laws of Variation 145
- Difficulties of the Theory 178
- Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection 219
- Instinct 262
- Hybridism 298
- On the Imperfection of the Geological Record 333
- On the Geological Succession of Organic Beinss 364
- Geographical Distribution 395
- Geographical Distribution - continued 427
- Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs 450
- Recapitulation and Conclusion 499
- GLOSSARY 531
- INDEX 541