412 REVOLUTIONS OF ORGANIC LIFE. 



rified remains as a lasting record of their exist- 

 ence : 



3. That the more ancient the formations, the 

 more simple are the organisms they contain, and 

 the more unlike any which now inhabit the 

 earth ,* until we arrive at the newer secondary, 

 in which have been found a few birds and mar- 

 supial remains : 



4. That during the uniformly elavated tem- 

 perature which prevailed in the middle and 

 higher latitudes, there was a corresponding uni- 

 formity in the zoological and botanical character 



* For example, from the commencement of the transition to 

 the termination of the coal formation, (supposed to represent three 

 subdivisions, or geological epochs,) the sea every where abounded 

 with encrinites, polypi, terebratulse, trilobites, orthoceratites, and 

 other testacea, with a few species of strange fishes, which seem to 

 have been the only vertebrated animals then existing. But all 

 of these passed away, (unless we suppose what has not yet been 

 proved, that they underwent a gradual change under the influ- 

 ence of a different climatic condition of the earth,) and gave place 

 to animals wholly different from any that have existed since the 

 newer secondary eras, such as the huge icthyosauri, plesiosauri, 

 pterodactyli, turtles, and other reptiles. As we advance to- 

 wards the present epoch, we find in the older tertiary formation, 

 the palseotherium, the anoplotherium, and remains of cetacea re- 

 sembling the manati. These also passed away, and were suc- 

 ceeded by a still greater variety of warm blooded animals, some 

 of which are represented by living species ; such as the elephant, 

 rhinoceros, hippopotamus, fragments of the ape, and several 

 species of the feline genus ; to which may be added, the dinothe- 

 rium, the megatherium, the gigantic mastodon, and the elasmo- 

 therium, (a strange quadruped resembling both the horse, and 

 rhinoceros, ) all of which belonged to the newer tertiary epoch, 

 and which have also long since been numbered with the myriads 

 of extinct animals. 



