THE ANIMAL, MAN (ANTHROPOLOGY) 53.3 



the amphibians, that emerged upon land. Following thi.s notable ac- 

 complishment, modifications and adaptations came thick and fast, 

 or the aquatic amphibians could never have met the demands of the 

 new land habitat and become successful settlers there. They never 

 did make a great success of it, for the transition from water to land 

 was so gigantic an enterprise that the poor creatures barely succeeded 

 in entering even into the edge of the Promised Land. Consequently 

 they have always been, and remain today, the smallest and most 

 helpless of all the vertebrate groups, but to their glory be it said that 

 they did mark the road and pave the way over which advancing 

 hordes of reptilian successors were enabled to press on to greater 

 achievements. We do not appreciate the part reptiles have played in 

 the making of man, partly by reason of the insignificance of the rep- 

 tiles living today. Only a few cold blooded crawling snakes, repulsive 

 crocodiles, furtive lizards, and sluggish turtles are left to remind us 

 of a reptilian aristocracy that dominated the Mesozoic world for at 

 least ten million years, and laid the foundation for the next great 

 stride upward. In passing, we may remind ourselves that a good deal 

 happened during the gray Mesozoic millenniums, of which we have 

 some few hints in the fossil remains of extinct reptiles, but we must 

 not now be diverted from our upward quest by the stirring saga of 

 those particular past events, marking as they did the rise and domi- 

 nance of life in the Reptilian age. 



There were two ways of escape out of this long-drawn-out ancient 

 reptiUan "civilization," namely, by way of the birds, or by way of the 

 mammals. Birds do not immediately concern us in this connection, 

 for the reason that they have sacrificed every other future prospect 

 in becoming specialized for flight in the air, and in conquering the new 

 aerial realm. Now at last they find themselves trapped in a lane 

 that has no turning, and apparently without any future evolutionary 

 outlet. They certainly did not lead the way to man. 



Mammals, on the other hand, chose the better part by retaining a 

 wider range of evolutionary resources, and meanwhile by putting off, 

 to a considerable extent, the narrowing effects of organic special- 

 ization. The first mammals were small insignificant creatures, that 

 were no doubt looked down upon or ignored by their reptilian con- 

 temporaries. They possessed, however, certain secrets of warm- 

 bloodedness, prolonged parental care, and other physiological and 

 anatomical innovations, of which the cold-blooded reptiles, with their 

 lesser brains, never dreamed. 



