Biology and Its Makers: With Portraits and Other IllustrationsLocy, William A. (William Albert)
History
Biology and Its Makers: With Portraits and Other Illustrations
Locy, William A. (William Albert)
Biology -- History
[Illustration: Fig. 101.--O.C. Marsh, 1831-1899.]
Zittel.--The name most widely known in palæontology is that of the
late Karl von Zittel (1839-1904), who devoted all his working life
to the advancement of the science of fossils. In his great work,
_Handbuch der Palaeontologie_ (1876-1893), he brought under one view
the entire range of fossils from the protozoa up to the mammals. Osborn
says: "It is probably not an exaggeration to say that he did more for
the promotion and diffusion of palæontology than any other single
man who lived during the nineteenth century. While not gifted with
genius, he possessed extraordinary judgment, critical capacity, and
untiring industry." His portrait (Fig. 102) shows a face "full of keen
intelligence and enthusiasm."
Zittel's influence was exerted not only through his writings, but also
through his lectures and the stimulus imparted to the large number of
young men who were attracted to Munich to study under his direction.
These disciples are now distributed in various universities in Europe
and the United States, and are there carrying forward the work begun
by Zittel. The great collection of fossils which he left at Munich
contains illustrations of the whole story of the evolution of life
through geological ages.
Recent Developments.--The greatest advance now being made in the
study of fossil vertebrate life consists in establishing the lineage
of families, orders, and classes. Investigators have been especially
fortunate in working out the direct line of descent of a number of
living mammals. Fossils have been collected which supply a panoramic
view of the line of descent of horses, of camels, of rhinoceroses, and
of other animals. The most fruitful worker in this field at the present
time is perhaps Henry F. Osborn, of the American Museum of Natural
History, New York City. His profound and important investigations
in the ancestry of animal life are now nearing the time of their
publication in elaborated form.
Palæontology, by treating fossil life and recent life in the same
category, has come to be one of the important lines of investigation
in biology. It is, of course, especially rich in giving us a knowledge
of the hard parts of animals, but by ingenious methods we can arrive
at an idea of some of the soft parts that have completely disappeared.
Molds of the interior of the cranium can be made, and thus one may form
a notion of the relative size and development of the brain in different
vertebrated animals. This method of making molds and studying them has
shown that one characteristic of the geological time of the tertiary
period was a marked development in regard to the brain size of the
different animals. There was apparently, just prior to the quaternary
epoch, a need on the part of animals to have an increased brain-growth;
and one can not doubt that this feature which is demonstrated by fossil
life had a great influence in the development of higher animal forms.
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