File:Outlines of comparative physiology touching the structure and development of the races of animals, living and extinct - for the use of schools and colleges (1870) (14780508304).jpg

Identifier: outlinesofcompar00agas (find matches)
Title: Outlines of comparative physiology touching the structure and development of the races of animals, living and extinct : for the use of schools and colleges
Year: 1870 (1870s)
Authors: Agassiz, Louis, 1807-1873 Gould, Augustus A. (Augustus Addison), 1805-1866 Wright, Thomas, 1809-1884
Subjects: Physiology, Comparative Zoology
Publisher: London : Bell & Daldy
Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MBLWHOI Library

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now living around us, and besides these, many typesnow extinct, some of them of a gigantic size, such as the Masto-don,* the remains of which are found in the uppermost strata ofthe earths surface, and probably the very last large animal which * The gallery of fossil remains in the British Museum contains a fineskeleton of the Mastodon, a splendid specimen of which, disinterred atNewburg, N. Y., is now in the possession of Dr. J. C. Warren, in Boston ;the most complete skeleton which has ever been discovered. It standsnearly twelve feet in height, the tusks are fourteen feet in length andnearly every bone is present, in a state of preservation truly wonderful. CONCLUSIONS. 417 became extinct before the creation of man. In the continentof South America are found, in the drift of that region, the re-mains of another gigantic animal, the Megatherium (fig. ,390),which resembles the armadillos of that country, but differs fromall other quadrupeds in the colossal dimensions of its skeleton.
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Fig. 390.—The Megatherium. § 688. It is necessary, therefore, to distinguish two periodsin the history of the animals now living; one in which themarine animals were created, and a second, during which theland and fresh-water animals made their appearance, and attheir head MAN.* CONCLUSIONS. § 689. From the above sketch it is evident that there is amanifest progress in the succession of beings on the surface ofthe earth. This progress consists in an increasing similarityto the living fauna, and among the vertebrata, especially, intheir increasing resemblance to Man. § 690. But this connection is not the consequence of a directlineage between the faunas of different a°;es. There is nothing O O O like parental descent connecting them. The fishes of thePalaeozoic age are in no respect the ancestors of the reptilesof the Secondary age, nor does Man descend from the mam-mals which preceded him in the Tertiary age. The link bywhich they are connected is of a higher and immaterial natu

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