Man in the Light of Evolution 



glimpse at the beginning of paleozoic time, or 

 perhaps a little before its beginning. Here our 

 chronology cannot be definite. 



At this time a very large part of the surface 

 of the globe was covered by a vast primeval 

 ocean. The continents were hardly outlined. 

 North America seems to have consisted mainly 

 of a V-shaped mass of land with its point or 

 apex near Lake Superior, and its arms stretch- 

 ing, one toward Labrador and the other toward 

 Alaska, to the east and west of Hudson's Bay. 

 The rest of the continent was mostly submerged 

 beneath a great sea whose surface was broken 

 by island or island chains. We do not know 

 how much life there may have been upon the 

 land. It was probably scanty. Our ancestors 

 were still in the primeval ocean, the cradle of 

 all hfe. 



Mollusks were well represented. Clams were 

 already safely ensconced and slumbering in the 

 mud. Other forms with spiral shells crawled 

 over the bottom. Cuttlefish, somewhat like our 

 present squids, but with their bodies protected 

 by a light shell, swam freely everywhere. They 

 seem to have lacked the beak of our modern 

 forms. But they could swallow most of their 



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