Seite - 358 - in The Origin of Species
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Text der Seite - 358 -
358 ORIGIN OF SPECIES
forms are now commonly admitted to be teleostean ; and even
some palaeozoic forms have thus been classed by one high
authority. If the teleosteans had really appeared suddenly in
the northern hemisphere at the commencement of the chalk
formation, the fact would have been highly remarkable; but
it would not have formed an insuperable difficulty, vmless it
could likewise have been shown that at the same period the
species were suddenly and simultaneously developed in other
quarters of the world. It is almost superfluous to remark
that hardly any fossil-fish are known from south of the
equator ; and by running through Pictet's Palaeontology it will
be seen that very few species are known from several forma-
tions in Europe. Some few families of fish now have a con-
fined range; the teleostean fishes might formerly have had a
similarly confined range, and after having been largely de-
veloped in some one sea, have spread widely. Nor have we
any right to suppose that the seas of the world have always
been so freely open from south to north as they are at pres-
ent. Even at this day, if the Malay Archipelago were con-
verted into land, the tropical parts of the Indian Ocean would
form a large and perfectly enclosed basin, in which any great
group of marine animals might be multiplied; and here they
would remain confined, until some of the species became
adapted to a cooler climate, and were enabled to double the
Southern capes of Africa or Australia, and thus reach other
and distant seas.
From these considerations, from our ignorance of the geol-
ogy of other countries beyond the confines of Europe and the
United States, and from the revolution in our palaeontological
knowledge effected by the discoveries of the last dozen years,
it seems to me to be about as rash to dogmatize on the suc-
cession of organic forms throughout the world, as it would
be for a naturalist to land for five minutes on a barren point
in Australia, and then to discuss the number and range of its
productions.
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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