50 



Lack of time forbids nay consideration of such interesting matters 

 as " zones," " the doctrines of colonies," and other interesting divisions 

 of this portion of the subject. 



An important part in the formation of rock masses has been played 

 by fossils, for although the sand and clay rocks have not been shown to be 

 of organic origin, yet the greater part of the lime rocks, some of the flint 

 rocks and all the coal and blacklead, with presumably the phosphates, 

 were built up of the remains and through the agency of the animals 

 and plants of the periods of their deposition. 



The greater part of the limestones and chalks are compact masses 

 of organic remains of corals, molluscs, echinoderms, foraminifera, 

 calcareous algae, and other organic forms which possessed lime 

 skeletons. Many flinty deposits are clue to polycystina, diatoms and 

 sponges, and the coal, blacklead and other forms of carbon have 

 undoubtedly been produced through the agency of plants. 



It is not generally known that geology originated from a study of 

 fossils, and that without palaeontology there would have been no science 

 of geology — that is to say, palaeontology was the foundation, not a 

 branch, of geology. 



Zoology and botany also owe much to the study of fossils. The 

 classification of both animals and plants has been rendered much more 

 nearly complete, through the insertion of many intermediate orders, the 

 blastids. the cystids, the cyclocystids, the peculiar j^aloeozoic starfishes, 

 the receptaculites, the trilobites, the eurypterids, the many orders of 

 fishes from the old Red, uhe labyrinthodonts, the wonderful reptiles of 

 the secondary, the odontoterms or toothed birds, including the 

 archseopterix (a bird with a tale of a reptile), the strange Eocene 

 mammals and ungulates, the extinct marsupials of Australia and 

 edentata of South America, and the Pliocene hippopotami of Asia and 

 Africa are some of the examples. 



Vertebrate palaeontology has furnished data for some fairly well 

 proven genealogies of various existing animals, especially of the large 

 mammals, which have been traced back through allied forms, in a closely 

 connected series to early tertiary times. In several cases, notably in 

 that of the horse, the series are so complete that there can be little 

 doubt that the line of descent has been demonstrated. 







