24 THEORY OF EVOLUTION 



The Evidence from Paleontology 



The direct evidence furnished by fossil re- 

 mains is by all odds the strongest evidence that 

 we have in favor of organic evolution. Paleon- 

 tology holds the incomparable position of being 

 able to point directly to the evidence showing 

 that the animals and plants living in past times 

 are connected with those living at the present 

 time, often through an unbroken series of 

 stages. Paleontology has triumphed over the 

 weakness of the evidence, which Darwin ad- 

 mitted was serious, by filling in many of the 

 missing links. 



Paleontology has been criticised on the 

 ground that she cannot pretend to show the 

 actual ancestors of living forms because, if in 

 the past genera and species were as abundant 

 and as diverse as we find them at present, it is 

 very improbable that the bones of any individual 

 that happened to be preserved are the bones of 

 just that species that took part in the evolution. 

 Paleontologists will freely admit that in many 

 cases this is probably true, but even then the 

 evidence is, I think, still just as valuable and 



