On the Classification and Geographical Distribution of the Mammalia; To Which Is Added an Appendix, on the Gorilla - Softcover

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1859 edition. Excerpt: ... APPENDIX A. ON THE EXTINCTION OF SPECIES. Being the Conclusion of the Fullerian Course of Lectures on Physiology, for 1859. In a Report to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, On the Extinct Mammals of Australia, published in the Volume of Reports for 1844, evidence is adduced in proof of the law, that with extinct as with existing mammalia particular forms were assigned to particular provinces, and that the same forms were restricted to the same provinces at a former geological period as they are at the present day. That period, however, was the more recent tertiary one. In carrying back the retrospective comparison of existing and extinct mammals to those of the eocene and oolitic strata, in relation to their local distribution, we obtain indications of extensive changes in the relative position of sea and land during those epochs, through the degree of incongruity between the generic forms of the mammalia which then existed in Europe, and any that actually exist on the great natural continent of which Europe now forms part. It would seem, indeed, that the further we penetrate into time for the recovery of extinct mammalia, the further we must go into space to find their existing analogues. To match the eocene palaeotheres and lophiodons we must bring tapirs from Sumatra or South America; and we must travel to the antipodes for myrmecobians, the nearest living analogue to the amphitheres and spalacotheres of our oolitic strata. On the problem of the extinction of species I have little to say; and of the more mysterious subject of their coming into being, nothing profitable or to the purpose. As a cause of extinction in times anterior to man, it is most reasonable to assign the chief weight to those gradual changes in...