4 INVERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY 



shared with all other branches of Science) cannot 

 obscure the main field of study that lies open to 

 Palaeontology. Between the dim outlines of Pre- 

 Cambrian faunas and the clearer, but bafflingly com- 

 plex, details of present-day life, there extends a long 

 range of fossil remains which supply certain, though 

 fragmentary, evidence of the course of organic evolution. 

 These fossils are the materials that form the basis of 

 palaeontological science. Before proceeding to dis- 

 cussion of the varied conditions under which the 

 evidence may occur, and the methods employed in its 

 interpretation, it may be well to consider briefly the 

 replies that a Palaeontologist could make to the ques- 

 tions so often asked of students of Natural Science : Quo 

 vadis f and Cui bono ? 



(II) AIMS 



Since Palaeontology is, in its essential aspects, Histori- 

 cal Biology, its aims must agree in large measure with 

 those of Zoology and Botany. Many of the conditions 

 and materials available to the latter Sciences are lacking 

 in the evidence with which Palaeontology deals, so that 

 in some ways its scope is curtailed; but the introduction 

 of the historical element gives compensating extension 

 in other directions. The fundamental and elementary 

 aims may be summarized as the discovery, description 

 and classification of organic beings, and subsequent 

 deduction of the laws which have determined, and still 

 govern, their life and relations. Palaeontology, the 

 discussion of past organisms, must always be preceded 

 by Palaeontography, their description. This is mani- 

 festly impossible until they have been discovered; so 

 that the first and perpetual duty of a Palaeontologist 

 is to collect fossils. The healthy, outdoor " sport " (for 



