78 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



of the fossil ccelenterates known as Graptolites, Professor 

 Woods says: "In some genera the hydrothecae of dif- 

 ferent species show great variety of form, those of one 

 species being often much more like those of a species belonging 

 to another genus than to other species of the same genus." 

 ("Palaeontology," 5th ed., 1919, p. 69.) As another instance of 

 this phenomenon, the case of the fossil ungulates of South 

 America, spoken of as Litoptema, may be cited, and the case 

 is peculiarly interesting because of its bearing on that piece de 

 resistance of palaeontological evidence, the Pedigree of the 

 Horse. "The second family of Litoptema," says Wm. B. Scott, 

 "the Proterotheriidae, were remarkable for their many decep- 

 tive resemblances to horses. Even though those who contend 

 that the Litoptema should be included in the Perissodactyla 

 should prove to be in the right, there can be no doubt that 

 the proterotheres were not closely related to the horses, but 

 formed a most striking illustration of the independent acqui- 

 sition of similar characters through parallel or convergent 

 development. The family was not represented in the Pleisto- 

 cene, having died out before that epoch, and the latest known 

 members of it lived in the upper Pliocene. . . . Not that this 

 remarkable character was due to grotesque proportions; on 

 the contrary, they looked far more like the ordinary ungulates 

 of the northern hemisphere than did any of their South Ameri- 

 can contemporaries; it is precisely this resemblance that is so 

 notable. . . . The feet were three-toed, except in one genus 

 (Thoatherium) in which they were single-toed, and nearly or 

 quite the whole weight was carried upon the median digit, the 

 laterals being mere dew-claws. The shape of the hoofs and 

 the whole appearance of the foot was surprisingly like those 

 of the three-toed horses, but there were certain structural dif- 

 ferences of such great importance, in my judgment, as to forbid 

 the reference of these animals, not merely to the horses, but 

 even to the perissodactyls." ("A History of Land Mammals 

 in the Western Hemisphere," p. 499.) 

 For this sort of parallelism, the Lamarckian and Darwinian 



