Among animals, instances of the same kind may be found in every
sub-kingdom. The 'Globigerina' of the Atlantic soundings is identical
with that which occurs in the chalk; and the casts of lower silurian
'Foraminifera', which Ehrenberg has recently described, seem to indicate
the existence at that remote period of forms singularly like those which
now exist. Among the corals, the palaeozoic 'Tabulata' are constructed
on precisely the same type as the modern millepores; and if we turn to
molluscs, the most competent malacologists fail to discover any generic
distinction between the 'Craniae', 'Lingulae' and 'Discinae' of the
silurian rocks and those which now live. Our existing 'Nautilus' has its
representative species in every great formation, from the oldest to the
newest; and 'Loligo', the squid of modern seas, appears in the lias, or
at the bottom of the mesozoic series, in a form, at most, specifically
different from its living congeners. In the great assemblage of annulose
animals, the two highest classes, the insects and spider tribe, exhibit
a wonderful persistency of type. The cockroaches of the carboniferous
epoch are exceedingly similar to those which now run about our
coal-cellars; and its locusts, termites and dragon-flies are closely
allied to the members of the same groups which now chirrup about our
fields, undermine our houses, or sail with swift grace about the banks
of our sedgy pools. And, in like manner, the palaeozoic scorpions can
only be distinguished by the eye of a naturalist from the modern ones.
Finally, with respect to the 'Vertebrata', the same law holds good:
certain types, such as those of the ganoid and placoid fishes, having
persisted from the palaeozoic epoch to the present time without a
greater amount of deviation from the normal standard than that which
is seen within the limits of the group as it now exists. Even among the
'Reptilia'--the class which exhibits the largest proportion of entirely
extinct forms of any one type,--that of the 'Crocodilia', has persisted
from at least the commencement of the Mesozoic epoch up to the present
time with so much constancy, that the amount of change which it exhibits
may fairly, in relation to the time which has elapsed, be called
insignificant. And the imperfect knowledge we have of the ancient
mammalian population of our earth leads to the belief that certain
of its types, such as that of the 'Marsupialia', have persisted with
correspondingly little change through a similar range of time.
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