PALAEONTOLOGY 



sieged, and Manuel, forced to agree 

 to a humiliating treaty, retired to 

 a convent, where he occupied him- 

 self with the composition of theo- 

 logical works. John VIII (1425-48), 

 to stem the threatened advance of 

 the Turks, endeavoured to obtain 

 help from the West by renewing 

 the attempt to heal the ecclesiasti- 

 cal schism. An agreement was 

 actually concluded in 1438, but was 

 rendered useless by the opposition 

 of the Greek clergy and the people 

 of Constantinople. The last repre- 

 sentative of the family was Con- 

 stantino Palaeologus (g-v.), with 

 whom the East Roman empire 

 came to an end in 1453. 



Palaeontology (Gr. palaios, 

 ancient ; onta, beings ; logos, 

 science). Study of past life on the 

 globe, especially as revealed by 

 fossil remains. The term embraces 

 the study of fossil plants, palaeo- 

 botany (q.v. ), as well as of fossil 

 animals, palaeozoology, but is 

 often used of the latter alone. 

 The description of the fossil 

 organisms themselves is called 

 palaeontography. 



Palaeontology subserves the in- 

 valuable purpose of establishing 

 the relationship in time of the 

 stratified rocks. The documentary 

 evidence furnished by fossils shows 

 that the earth's crust has passed 

 through three great time-divisions 

 or eras, called palaeozoic, mesozoic, 

 and cainozoic, to denote ancient, 

 middle, and recent life respectively. 



The fossil remains are imperfect 

 in themselves, and also comprise a 

 mere fraction of the total life of the 

 past. The soft parts which every 

 organism possesses have dis- 

 appeared, except in the case of 

 flies entombed in amber ; hence 

 infusoria and other soft- bodied 

 creatures are absent from the fossil 

 record. Sometimes animals leave 

 nothing more tangible than a 

 footprint, a burrow, or a streak. 

 Fossils comprise or represent 

 mainly such hard parts as teeth, 

 bones, and shells, sometimes in 

 their original substance, although 

 deprived of fatty matters, colours, 

 and the like, sometimes petrified 

 or mineralised in ways that per- 

 petuate the actual form. 



Even hard parts disappeared 

 unless animals died under con- 

 ditions ensuring some form of 

 natural burial. Many forms would 

 have passed into oblivion but for 

 stray specimens carried down by 

 rivers and dropped into the silt at 

 their mouths. Hence the biological 

 groups most useful for timing the 

 procession of life are those whose 

 habitat was the shallow seas, 

 especially brachiopods or lamp- 

 shells, trilobites, graptolites, corals, 

 molluscs, and other fishes. Palaeon- 



5930 



tology confirms the uniformity of 

 Nature's methods in adapting her 

 living handiwork to its environ- 

 ment. The law of analogous adapt- 

 ation denotes a tendency for differ- 

 ent groups of creatures to vary in a 

 similar way. The reptilian iguano- 

 don of Maidstone walked on the 

 hind legs, aided by the tail, much 

 as the kangaroo afterwards did. 

 The Tasmanian marsupial, Noto- 

 therium, as shown by remains found 

 in 1920, anticipated the shape and 

 habits of the rhinoceros. Every age 

 produced creatures which sought 

 self-protection by means of sheer 

 physical mass. Scotland's Old Red 

 Sandstone preserves the sea- 

 scorpion Pterygotus, with a length 

 of 6 ft. Primitive fishes, Astero- 

 lepis and Dinichthys, reached 20 ft. 

 A shark, Carcharodon, which 

 infested the pliocene waters of 

 Felixstowe, may have been 100 ft. 

 long. The mesozoic era, the age of 

 reptiles, produced the most stu- 

 pendous animals that ever lived. 



Important contributions to other 

 branches of knowledge result from 

 this study. 



(1) It has supported with over- 

 whelming evidence the view pro- 

 pounded by Darwin that the his- 

 tory of life is one of orderly de- 

 velopment. Life cannot be traced 

 to its first beginnings, and many of 

 the links connecting species with 

 species, or class with class, are 

 missing. But some remain, such as 

 Archaeopteryx, which helps to 

 explain how reptiles developed into 

 birds. 



(2) The geographical distri- 

 bution of animals and plants is the 

 result of migrations, often in remote 

 geological time. The presence of 

 opossums in South America, all 

 other pouched mammals being con- 

 fined to the Australasian region, 

 becomes intelligible when it is 

 shown that marsupials originated 

 hi Europe, whence they spread 

 to mesozoic America, probably 

 reaching Australia over an Ant- 

 arctic land-bridge. The lemurs of 

 Madagascar are explained by an 

 eocene land- bridge which con- 

 nected the island either with 

 Africa or India. 



(3) The study of fossil forms 

 throws light upon the changes 

 from epoch to epoch in the re- 

 lation of land to water, variations 

 of climate and rainfall, and the 

 like. The presence of the hippo- 

 potamus in pliocene East Anglia 

 betokens a tropical temperature ; 

 that of the woolly rhinoceros in the 

 Thames valley later on proves 

 sub-arctic conditions. Fresh-water 

 organisms have enabled vanished 

 lakes and rivers to be mapped, 

 while marine faunas in overlying 

 beds point to forgotten seas. 



PALAIS DE JUSTICE 



(4) Lastly, palaeontology has 

 yielded interesting evidence con- 

 cerning the physical history of man. 

 The fossil bones of primeval man 

 and his forerunners are casual and 

 scanty. But when associated with 

 those o'f mammals long extinct 

 they enable valuable conclusions to 

 be drawn, not only concerning the 

 high antiquity of the human race, 

 but also concerning the environ- 

 ment in which man wrought out to 

 a final issue the age-long struggle 

 for the primacy of the world. See 

 Archaeopteryx ; Dinosaur ; Fos- 

 sils ; Geology; consult also Text- 

 book of Palaeontology, K. A. von 

 ZittelandC. R. Eastman, vol. 1,2nd 

 ed. 1913, vol. 2, 1902; The Age 

 of Mammals, H. F. Osborn, 1910 ; 

 Invertebrate Palaeontology, H. L. 

 Hawkins, 1920 ; An Introduction 

 to P., A. M. Davies, 1920. 



E. G. Harnier 



Palaeozoic. In geology, the 

 name given to the earlier fossili- 

 ferous geological systems from the 

 Cambrian to the Permian. The 

 term includes the Cambrian, Ordo- 

 vician or Lower Silurian, the 

 Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, 

 and Permian periods, and rockg of 

 these periods contain fossils of the 

 earliest known forms of life. See 

 Cainozoic ; Mesozoic. 



Palaephatus. Greek writer, 

 under whose name is preserved a 

 small work entitled Concerning 

 Incredible Things. It contains a 

 collection of myths, accompanied 

 by allegorical interpretations. He 

 is supposed to have been a native of 

 Egypt or Athens, and to have lived 

 in the 3rd century B.C. He has also 

 been identified with Palaephatus of 

 Abydos, a friend of Aristotle and 

 the author of several historical 

 works. The work was at one time 

 a favourite schoolbook. 



Palaestra (Or. palaistra, wrest- 

 ling school). Word used in various 

 senses: (1) A place where Greek 

 boys were taught gymnastic exer- 

 cises ; (2) part of the gymnasium 

 reserved for wrestling bouts ; (3) 

 later, the gymnasium itself. 



Palagonite. In geology, a dark 

 red igneous rock. It is the 

 weathered form of black, glassy, 

 cinder-like masses which have been 

 ejected from volcanoes, and 

 generally appears in thin layers 

 between basaltic lavas It is 

 found in Iceland, Sicily, etc., and 

 often among the red clays on the 

 bottom of the sea, either as a 

 result of submarine volcanic 

 activity or from ashes of terrestrial 

 volcanoes, which have floated out 

 on the ocean and been deposited. 



Palais de Justice. French term 

 for a building used as a court of 

 law. Many French and Belgian 

 towns have buildings of this kind, 



