10 ANIMAL ECOLOGY 



vidual animals must have shown adjustive adapta- 

 tion, or there could have been no perpetuation to 

 continue the struggle of adjustment. Ecological 

 problems are likely to raise a question as to the rela- 

 tive importance of adaptation and evolution if 

 they are separate problems. The present generation 

 has perhaps been more deeply impressed by evolution 

 as a process, than by adaptation as a process. 



The ecology of living animals is only the latest 

 chapter in the volume on this subject ; the preceding 

 chapters will contain a history of the indefinitely 

 long series of ecological responses which have taken 

 place in the geologic past. Here is where the ecolo- 

 gist and paleontologist and geologist find common 

 ground. The ecology of living animals must furnish 

 us with whatever firm basis we have for the inter- 

 pretation of the conditions of life in the past, upon 

 which the paleontologist, stratigrapher, or paleo- 

 geographer must depend, at least in part, for his 

 interpretations. 



With still another training and interest, as in the 

 case of those especially interested in human affairs, 

 such as the sociologist, the physician, the sanitary 

 expert, and the agriculturist, we may ultimately 

 expect a greater appreciation for the associational 

 aspect because of the social or associational character 

 of human society. The associational is the phase 

 of animal activity which may be considered as the 

 form of animal behavior which has developed into 

 the human social relations. It is a response to the 

 complete organic and inorganic environment. 



