Animals Before Ma/n 



to look at and of small value if judged by their 

 looks alone ; but if we stop to reflect that so 

 far as our present knowledge goes these were 

 the first vertebrates that swam about the shores 

 of our continent, they acquire more importance. 

 For in their day they were the highest forms 

 of life in a world of invertebrates, marking the 

 beginning of a new order of things, and con- 

 taining the possibilities of future reptiles, birds, 

 and mammals. More than this, they were the 

 founders of the family to which man himself 

 belongs. Some future discovery may clear up 

 the mystery surrounding these animals and 

 make their place in nature clear, just as a for- 

 tunate find of trilobites settled once for all any 

 questions concerning their legs and antennae, 

 but now we can say very little about them. 



Simple in design as these fishlike creatures 

 were, it is inferred, from the very fact that they 

 possessed an armor of bony plates and had a 

 back-bone of sufficient consistency to be pre- 

 served, that they were preceded in time by 

 other and simpler animals. This is inferred 

 not only because all forms of life start in an 



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