CHAPTER YIIL 



PALAEONTOLOGY. 



Collections : Royal College of Surgeons, British Museum, Economic 



Geology, Geological Society. 



Authors : Cuvier, Grant, Owen, Mantell, Buckland, Goldfuss, Pictet, 

 D'Orbigny, Roemer, Vogt, Zieteu. 



PALEONTOLOGY * may be defined to be the science of fossil 

 animals. It comprehends all questions which connect these 

 organisms, directly or indirectly, with the strata in which 

 they are found, the conditions in which they lived, the 

 changes by which they became extinct, and the mode 

 through which their remains have been preserved. 



By a careful study of organic remains, the palaeontologist 

 is enabled to determine the gaps that exist in the regular 

 succession of families and genera, and by their presence or 

 absence in particular rocks he ascertains the relative ages ot 

 different strata, and from their position and mode of pre- 

 servation describes the disturbances and dislocations to 

 which they have been exposed. 



As the physiological laws which regulate the form, growth, 

 and development of animals, have ever been the same, from 

 the first dawning of life upon the surface of our planet, down 

 to the present time, the means which the zoologist employs 

 to distinguish and arrange existing species are alike appli- 

 cable to the deciphering and classification of extinct forms ; 

 and as the distribution of animals and plants on the surface 

 of the earth is determined by physical geography and clima- 

 tology, so, in like manner, have the same physical causes 



* (Gr. TraXaibs, ancient ; foras, beings ; \6yos, a discourse) the history 

 of ancient extinct organised beings. 



