Some Salient Points in the Science of the Earth — John Shaqi
Some Salient Points in the Science of the EarthDawson, John William, Sir
Science
Some Salient Points in the Science of the Earth
Dawson, John William, Sir
Geology; Paleontology
A discovery made by Walcott in the Western States since Mr. Matthew's
paper was written, throws fresh light on the question. Remains of
fishes have been found by the former in the Cambro Silurian rocks
nearly as far back as Mr. Matthew's comb-tracks. Besides this, Pander
in Russia has found in these old rocks curious teeth, which he refers
conjecturally to fishes (Conodonts). Why may there not have been in
the Cambrian large fishes having, like the modern sharks, cartilage or
gristle instead of bone--perhaps destitute of scales, and with small
teeth which have not yet been detected. The fin rays of such fishes may
have left the comb tracks, and in support of this I may say that there
are in the Lower Carboniferous of Horton Bluff, in Nova Scotia, very
similar tracks in beds holding many remains of fishes. Whichever view
we adopt we see good evidence that there were in the early Cambrian
animals of higher grade than we have yet dreamt of. Observe, however,
that if we could complete the record in this point it would only give
us higher forms of life at an earlier time, and so push farther back
their possible development from lower forms. I fear, indeed, that I
can hold out little hopes to the evolutionists that a more complete
geological record would help them in any way. It would possibly only
render their position more difficult.
But the saddest of all the possible defects of the geological record
is that it may want the beginning, and be like the Bible of some of
the German historical critics, from which they eliminate as mythical
everything before the time of the later Hebrew kings. Our attention is
forcibly called to this by the condition of the fauna of the earliest
Cambrian rocks. The discoveries in these in Wales, in Norway, and in
America show us that the seas of this early period swarmed with animals
representing all the great types of invertebrate marine life. We have
here highly organized Crustaceans, Worms, Mollusks and other creatures
which show us that in that early age all these distinct forms of life
were as well separated from each other as in later times, that eyes
of different types, jointed limbs with nerves and muscles, and a vast
variety of anatomical contrivances were as highly developed as at any
subsequent time.[20] To a Darwinian evolutionist this means nothing
less than that these creatures must have existed through countless ages
of development from their imagined simple ancestral form or forms how
long it is impossible to guess, since, unless change was more speedy
in the infancy of the earth, the term of ages required must have far
exceeded that from the Cambrian to the Modern. Yet, to represent all
this we have absolutely nothing except Eozoon in its solitary grandeur,
and a few other forms, possibly of Protozoa and worms. An imaginary
phylogeny of animal life from Monads to Trilobites would be something
as long as the whole geological history. Yet it would be almost wholly
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