1 86 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



land reptiles, and birds had their origin in land 

 reptiles where then is the marine ancestry ? 

 But the reptiles sprang from an ancient am- 

 phibian stock, whose very name, amphibian, 

 suggests that they lived partly in water and 

 partly on land. And these amphibians sprang 

 from fishes, and the original fishes were in the 

 sea. So that when we say that the ancestors 

 of land animals were marine, we usually mean 

 their distant ancestors, belonging perhaps to a 

 much simpler class. On the other hand, when 

 we look at the terrestrial crustaceans, called 

 wood-lice or slaters, which we see running 

 about if we turn over loose stones or strip off 

 loose bark, we may safely say these are the 

 direct descendants of sea-slaters, such as we 

 find to-day among the rocks on the shore. 



TELL-TALE EVIDENCES OF MARINE 

 ANCESTRY 



It may be asked, however, why land animals 

 may not have begun their existence on land, 

 instead of being derived from distant ancestors 

 in the sea. This is a good question, which 

 requires a longer answer than is possible 

 here. But part of the answer is this. Land 



