File:Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage round the world of H.M.S. 'Beagle,' under the command of Captain Fitz Roy (1913) (14580253760).jpg

Identifier: journalofresear01darw (find matches)
Title: Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage round the world of H.M.S. 'Beagle,' under the command of Captain Fitz Roy
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882
Subjects: Beagle Expedition (1831-1836) Natural history Geology Voyages around the world
Publisher: London : J. Murray
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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their stuntedvegetation ; but the relationship of the Macrauchenia to theguanaco, now an inhabitant of the most sterile parts, partlyexplains this difficulty. The relationship, though distant, between the Macraucheniaand the Guanaco, between the Toxodon and the Capybara,—the closer relationship between the many extinct Edentata andthe living sloths, ant-eaters, and armadilloes, now so eminentlycharacteristic of South American zoology,—and the still closerrelationship between the fossil and living species of Ctenomysand Hydrochaerus, are most interesting facts. This relation-ship is shown wonderfully—as wonderfully as between thefossil and extinct Marsupial animals of Australia—by the 1 I have lately heard that Capt. Sulivan, R.N., has found numerous fossilbones, embedded in regular strata, on the banks of the R. Gallegos, in lat. 5104. Some of the bones are large ; others are small, and appear to have belonged toan armadillo. This is a most interesting and important discovery.
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viii . CAUSES OF EXTINCTION 183 great collection lately brought to Europe from the caves ofBrazil by MM. Lund and Clausen. In this collection thereare extinct species of all the thirty-two genera, excepting four,of the terrestrial quadrupeds now inhabiting the provinces inwhich the caves occur; and the extinct species are much morenumerous than those now living: there are fossil ant-eaters,armadilloes, tapirs, peccaries, guanacos, opossums, and numerousSouth American gnawers and monkeys, and other animals.This wonderful relationship in the same continent between thedead and the living, will, I do not doubt, hereafter throwmore light on the appearance of organic beings on our earth,and their disappearance from it, than any other class offacts. It is impossible to reflect on the changed state of theAmerican continent without the deepest astonishment. Formerlyit must have swarmed with great monsters : now we find merepigmies, compared with the antecedent allied races. If Buffonhad known

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