The Last Link: Our Present Knowledge of the Descent of ManHaeckel, Ernst
Science
The Last Link: Our Present Knowledge of the Descent of Man
Haeckel, Ernst
Human beings -- Origin
7. From Eotetrapoda to a not yet separated or differentiated group
of Crossopterygian and Dipnoan fishes, both of which are known from
Devonian strata. The duration of the latter has been computed at
4,000,000 years, which, with 1,000,000 for the Mountain Limestone
formation, gives us 5,000,000 for this stage. Assuming, for the sake
of round numbers, as much as five years for a generation, we get
1,000,000 generations.
8. Earliest stage, down to the first fish-like creatures. Teeth and
spines indicating the existence of fishes are known from the Upper
Silurian. By carrying the earliest fishes down to the bottom of the
Silurian, with 2,700,000 years' duration, and allowing three years for
attaining puberty, the calculation results in 900,000 generations.
Further back we cannot go. We do not know of any Vertebrate remains
from the Ordovician and Cambrian, which together represent 6,700,000
years, enough for at least half as many generations of Prochordate
creatures. The pre-Cambrian or Laurentian epoch lies quite beyond the
reach of calculation, nor have we any trustworthy fossil remains of
living matter from these strata, to which, however, Haeckel and others
refer the first beginnings of life.
All the above calculations are, of course, only approximate. What we
do know is the existence of representatives of the stages, our proofs
being the fossils; but when we refer the origin of the Eotetrapoda,
for example, to the bottom and not somewhere to the middle of the
Coal-measures, we are guessing merely. Alterations in the levels
assumed for the various stage-representatives will, of course, alter
the result of the number of generations; but the leading idea, as
a whole, is not thereby upset. The fact remains that in the Upper
Silurian we have fishes; from the Coal-measures onwards, fishes and
Amphibia; since the Permian, fishes, Amphibia, and reptiles; since the
end of the Trias these three classes and the Mammalia; and lastly, at
least since the Plistocene, man himself. If Evolution is true at all,
the transformation from early fish-like creatures to man has come about
within these epochs. Being able to assign a time of duration to each
of them, with an approximate total of 21,000,000 years, we are also
able to put the whole ancestral series to a test by expressing each
great stage in generations. The result is very satisfactory. The whole
enormous stretch from the lowest fish-like creatures to man has been
resolved into more than 5,000,000 successive generations, and each of
these means a little step forwards in onward Evolution.
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