CHAPTER X 



ON THE GEOLOGICAL SUCCESSION OF ORGANIC BEINGS 



On the slow and successive appearance of new species— On their 

 different rates of change— Species once lost do not reappear— 

 Groups of species follow the same general rules in their appear- 

 ance and disappearance as do single species— On Extinction— 

 On simultaneous changes in the forms of life throughout the 

 world — On the affinities of extinct species to each other and to 

 living species— On the state of development of ancient forms— 

 On the succession of the same types within the same areas- 

 Summary of preceding and present chapters. 



Let us now see whether the several facts and rules 

 relating to the geological succession of organic beings, 

 better accord with the common view of the immuta- 

 bility of species, or with that of their slow and gradual 

 modification, through descent and natural selection. 



New species have appeared very slowly, one after 

 another, both on the land and in the waters. ^ Lyell 

 has shown that it is hardly possible to resist the evidence 

 on this head in the case of the several tertiary stages ; 

 and every year tends to fill up the blanks between 

 them, and to make the percentage system of lost and 

 new forms more gradual. In some of the most recent 

 beds, though undoubtedly of high antiquity if measured 

 by years, only one or two species are lost forms, and 

 only one or two are new forms, having here appeared 

 for the first time, either locally, or, as far as we know, 

 on the face of the earth. If we may trust the observa- 

 tions of Philippi in Sicily, the successive changes in 

 the marine inhabitants of that island have been many 



280 



