70 Thomas Henry Huxley 



shewed that a large number of the Dinosaurs had this 

 and other peculiarities of the bird's pelvis, and sepa- 

 rated these into a group which he called the " Ornitli- 

 oscelida," seeing in them the closest representatives 

 of the probable reptilian ancestors of birds. While 

 further work and the discovery of a still greater num- 

 ber of extinct reptiles has made it less probable that 

 these were the actual ancestors of birds, Huxley's work 

 in this, as in the many other cases we have shown, 

 proved not onl}^ of great value in itself, but led to a 

 continually increasing series of investigations by others. 

 It is not always the pioneer that makes the greatest 

 discoveries in a new country, but the work of the 

 pioneer makes possible and easier the more assured dis- 

 coveries of his followers. 



A third great piece of palseontological investigation 

 with which the name of Huxley will always be associ- 

 ated, is the most familiar of all the instances taken from 

 fossils in support of the evolution of animals. This 

 famous case is the pedigree of the horse. In 1870, in 

 an address delivered to the Geological Society of Lon- 

 don, Huxley had shewn that there was a series of ani- 

 mals leading backwards from the modern horse to a 

 more generalised creature called Anchitherium, and 

 found in the rocks of the Miocene period. He sug- 

 gested that there were, no doubt, similar fos.sils leading 

 still further backwards towards the common mammalian 

 type of animal, wnth five fingers and five toes, and went 

 the length of suggesting one or two fossils which might 

 stand in the direct line of ancestry. But in 1876 he 

 visited America, and had the opportunity of consulting 

 the marvellous series of fossils which Professor Marsh 

 had collected from American Tertiary beds. Professor 

 Marsh allowed him the freest use of his materials and 



