CHAPTER XI 

 EVIDENCES FROM PALAEONTOLOGY 



STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF THE EVIDENCE 



The word palaeontology means literally the science of ancient 

 life. Practically, it is the study of the fossil remains of extinct animals 

 and plants, including any traces of their existence, such as footprints, 

 impressions in slate, clay, or coal. The evidence from the fossils has 

 definite elements of strength in that it deals with actual organisms that 

 formerly inhabited the earth's surface. Many of these species must 

 have left descendants, some of which are doubtless living in a modified 

 condition today. Palaeontology should be able either strongly to 

 support or to contradict the idea of evolution. If its data accord with 

 the evolution idea and are opposed to the special creation idea, the 

 fossils may be said to be evidences of evolution. 



The weakness of the study of fossils lies in the fact that extremely 

 few samples of the living forms that have existed in the past have 

 been preserved, and of those that have been preserved only a very 

 small percentage have been dug up and studied by capable scientists. 

 Many types of animals and plants, moreover, are soft and capable 

 of preservation only under such exceptional conditions that but 

 a rare specimen here and there over the world, scattered through 

 various widely separated strata, has been found. Only very common 

 or abundant types are likely to have been preserved and discovered, 

 for the chances of an uncommon form being preserved would be small 

 and the further chances of these infrequently preserved specimens 

 being found would be infinitely smaller. 



The great majority of fossil remains are fragmentary or preserved 

 very incompletely, so that only the hard parts have come down 

 to us. There are, of course, many important exceptions to this rule, 

 and these are our chief reliance in interpreting ancient Ufe. 



That Darwin fully realized the vulnerable points in the palaeonto- 

 logical record is shown by the following quotation from the Origin oj 

 Species: 



"I look at the geological record as a history of the world imper- 

 fectly kept and written in a changing dialect; of this history we possess 



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