Moreover, when, by sudden immigration or by unusually
rapid development, many species of a new group have taken possession of an
area, many of the older species will have been exterminated in a
correspondingly rapid manner; and the forms which thus yield their places
will commonly be allied, for they will partake of the same inferiority in
common.
Thus, as it seems to me, the manner in which single species and whole
groups of species become extinct accords well with the theory of natural
selection. We need not marvel at extinction; if we must marvel, let it be
at our presumption in imagining for a moment that we understand the many
complex contingencies on which the existence of each species depends. If
we forget for an instant that each species tends to increase inordinately,
and that some check is always in action, yet seldom perceived by us, the
whole economy of nature will be utterly obscured. Whenever we can
precisely say why this species is more abundant in individuals than that;
why this species and not another can be naturalised in a given country;
then, and not until then, we may justly feel surprise why we cannot account
for the extinction of any particular species or group of species.
ON THE FORMS OF LIFE CHANGING ALMOST SIMULTANEOUSLY THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.
Scarcely any palaeontological discovery is more striking than the fact that
the forms of life change almost simultaneously throughout the world.
Pages:
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559