EVIDENCES OF EVOLUTION 33 



ograpliic stone of Bavaria, and the grain of 

 the stone — a hardened mud — is so fine that 

 the impressions of the feathers are well seen, 

 and most of the bones are clear. Archseop- 

 teryx was a creature about the size of a crow, 

 probably arboreal, and beyond all doubt 

 a bird — the earliest bird we know of. But 

 what gives it a peculiar interest is that while 

 it is not far from a typical bird in its skull, its 

 merry-thought, and its legs, it is in some 

 other respects markedly reptile-like. It has, 

 for instance, teeth in both jaws, a long tail 

 like a lizard's, and a strange wing, well- 

 developed yet unfinished, with its three 

 digits ending in unmistakable claws. 



Now Archseopteryx was very far from be- 

 ing a beginner on the bird line of evolution; 

 its wings and its legs prove that. It is also 

 possible that it was an offshoot from the 

 direct line, and thus not ancestral to any 

 bird now living. Still, we cannot but regard 

 it as "a connecting link" in the sense that 

 it shows in its structure a combination of 

 reptilian and avian characters, the latter, of 

 course, fully predominating. 



Fossil Series. — One of the finest examples 

 of a well-preserved series of kindred forms 

 is afforded by an extinct freshwater snail, 

 Paludina neumayri, which is very abundant 

 in some Tertiary deposits in Slavonia. The 



