412 



Life and Immortality. 





CARBONIFEROUS TIMES. 

 Animals and Plants That Prevailed. 



said, it may be gathered that our existing plants and animals 

 are for the most part of modern origin, using the term 

 modern in its geological acceptation. Measured by human 

 standards, many of our existing animals, those which are 

 capable of being preserved as fossils, are known to have a 

 high antiquity. Not a few of our shell-fish commenced 

 their existence at some time in the Tertiary, while one 

 species of Lampshell Terebratulina caput-serpcntis is 

 believed to have survived since the Chalk, and a number of 

 the Foraminifera date from the Carboniferous Period. Thus, 

 we learn the additional fact that our existing flora and fauna 

 do not constitute an aggregation of organic forms which 

 were introduced into the world collectively and simultane- 

 ously, but that they commenced their existence at very dif- 

 ferent times, some being extremely ancient, whilst others are 

 of comparatively recent origin. And this introduction of 

 existing plants and animals, as admirably shown by the 

 study of the fossil shells of the Tertiary Period, was a slow 



