Animals Before Man 



better fitted to the changed and changing 

 conditions. And as mere size is no indication 

 of rank for if it were, man would not stand 

 where he considers he does, at the head of all 

 living creatures so many of the smaller ani- 

 mals are an advance on the larger species that 

 dropped out of the race. And here it may be 

 remarked that, while the early history of in- 

 sects is but imperfectly known, in the Carbonif- 

 erous not only were they present in numbers, 

 but that some were by far the largest of the 

 class. Nowadays bats and birds are the only 

 flying animals with a spread of wing of two 

 feet or more, but some of the Carboniferous in- 

 sects measure two feet across their wings, or 

 nearly twice as much as any living insect. 



And though by the time the Devonian pe- 

 riod was reached vertebrates had developed to 

 such an extent that this is known as the age of 

 fishes, yet throughout that .and the succeeding 

 period invertebrates played a most important 

 r61e. The Carboniferous may perhaps be styled 

 the golden age of crinoids, or sea-lilies, for then 

 these beautiful forms flourished, and were the 



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