"It has been noticed," writes our great zoologist, "that certain types,
which are frequently prominent among the representatives of past ages,
combine in their structure peculiarities which at later periods are only
observed separately in different, distinct types. Sauroid fishes before
reptiles, Pterodactyles before birds, Ichthyosauri before dolphins, etc.
There are entire families, of nearly every class of animals, which in the
state of their perfect development exemplify such prophetic relations.
The sauroid fishes of the past geological ages are an example of this kind
These fishes which preceded the appearance of reptiles present a
combination of ichthyic and reptilian characters not to be found in the
true members of this class, which form its bulk at present. The
Pterodactyles, which preceded the class of birds, and the Ichthyosauri,
which preceded the Cetacea, are other examples of such prophetic
types."--(Agassiz, "Contributions, Essay on Classification," p. 117.)
Now, these reptile-like fishes, of which gar-pikes are the living
representatives, though of earlier appearance, are admittedly of higher rank
than common fishes. They dominated until reptiles appeared, when they
mostly gave place to (or, as the derivationists will insist, were resolved
by divergent variation and natural selection into) common fishes, destitute
of reptilian characters, and saurian reptiles--the intermediate grades,
which, according to a familiar piscine saying, are "neither fish, flesh,
nor good red-herring," being eliminated and extinguished by natural
consequence of the struggle for existence which Darwin so aptly portrays.
And so, perhaps, of the other prophetic types. Here type and antitype
correspond. If these are true prophecies, we need not wonder that some who
read them in Agassiz's book will read their fulfillment in Darwin's.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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