PERSPECTIVES IN EVOLUTION RITCHIE 



265 



opment of birds and mammals in the Tertiary period would be con- 

 fined to less than three-quarters of an hour before midday. Now 

 in this procession primitive man makes his appearance with the Ice 

 Age at less than a minute to noon, and man of our own species {Homo 

 sapiens) less than a second and a half ago. On our time scale all the 

 developments of historic man, all the wonderful achievements of civ- 

 ilization, all the new order of mankind in nature has been crowded into 

 less than one-tenth of a second. 



AMPHIBIANS 

 REPTILES 

 DINOSAURS 

 -MAMMALS 

 BIRDS 



^ HOMO SAPfENS -\kS^% 



PRESENT HISTORIC MAN --^second 



FIGDBB 1. — The evolution clock, illustrating the relative length of existence of man and 

 other animals. Each hour represents 100 million years ; each minute represents about 

 1% million years. 



But this perspective of man's temporal place in the universe sug- 

 gests other considerations. It gives a pointer to the future of man- 

 kind upon the earth. Prof. Julian Huxley in his address to the 

 Zoology Section of the British Association at Blackpool (1936) and 

 many others have speculated upon the near view of man's future. 

 To some it has seemed likely that future progress will be along the 

 lines of individual development, that brains and mind will become 

 more perfect in their working until man is master of all nature. 

 Others look to a future in which not the individual as a unit, but 

 society as an integi-ation of individuals will become more closely knit 

 and more perfect in its functionmg. 



