The diffusion
would, it is probable, be slower with the terrestrial inhabitants of
distinct continents than with the marine inhabitants of the continuous sea.
We might therefore expect to find, as we do find, a less strict degree of
parallelism in the succession of the productions of the land than with
those of the sea.
Thus, as it seems to me, the parallel, and, taken in a large sense,
simultaneous, succession of the same forms of life throughout the world,
accords well with the principle of new species having been formed by
dominant species spreading widely and varying; the new species thus
produced being themselves dominant, owing to their having had some
advantage over their already dominant parents, as well as over other
species; and again spreading, varying, and producing new forms. The old
forms which are beaten and which yield their places to the new and
victorious forms, will generally be allied in groups, from inheriting some
inferiority in common; and, therefore, as new and improved groups spread
throughout the world, old groups disappear from the world; and the
succession of forms everywhere tends to correspond both in their first
appearance and final disappearance.
There is one other remark connected with this subject worth making. I have
given my reasons for believing that most of our great formations, rich in
fossils, were deposited during periods of subsidence; and that blank
intervals of vast duration, as far as fossils are concerned, occurred
during the periods when the bed of the sea was either stationary or rising,
and likewise when sediment was not thrown down quickly enough to embed and
preserve organic remains.
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