So that by this fundamental test of
victory in the battle for life, as well as by the standard of the
specialisation of organs, modern forms ought, on the theory of natural
selection, to stand higher than ancient forms. Is this the case? A large
majority of palaeontologists would answer in the affirmative; and it seems
that this answer must be admitted as true, though difficult of proof.
It is no valid objection to this conclusion, that certain Brachiopods have
been but slightly modified from an extremely remote geological epoch; and
that certain land and fresh-water shells have remained nearly the same,
from the time when, as far as is known, they first appeared. It is not an
insuperable difficulty that Foraminifera have not, as insisted on by Dr.
Carpenter, progressed in organisation since even the Laurentian epoch; for
some organisms would have to remain fitted for simple conditions of life,
and what could be better fitted for this end than these lowly organised
Protozoa? Such objections as the above would be fatal to my view, if it
included advance in organisation as a necessary contingent. They would
likewise be fatal, if the above Foraminifera, for instance, could be proved
to have first come into existence during the Laurentian epoch, or the above
Brachiopods during the Cambrian formation; for in this case, there would
not have been time sufficient for the development of these organisms up to
the standard which they had then reached.
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