THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 



tebrates include the largest and most intelligent animals, 

 culminating in Man, who still bears witness to his chordate 

 ancestry in the reappearance of a chorda (cartilaginous 

 spine) and gill clefts during embryonic life. In this section 

 are specimens of the lancelet Amphioxus, related to the 

 primitive group from which the vertebrates developed. 



The visitor should now go to the Tower Alcove which con- 

 tains a comprehensive synoptic series of stony corals. Re- 

 turn to the center of the hall and examine the four large 

 models of the malaria mosquito, enlarged seventy-five 

 diameters or in volume 400,000 times the natural size. 



In the windows around the hall are the Sea Worm, 4 

 Shore Mollusk and Wharf Pile Groups, 5 the last-named 

 being a reproduction of the piles of an old wharf at Vine- 

 yard Haven, Massachusetts, and the varied and countless 

 marine invertebrates which adhere to them below the water 

 line. 



In other portions of the hall will be found exhibits to 

 illustrate certain facts made clear by Darwin and those who 

 follow him : on the left, facing the entrance, Variation un- 

 der Domestication, and on the right, Variation in Nature. 

 The Struggle for Existence is portrayed by the meadow 

 mouse surrounded by its many enemies, while the simpler 

 features of the Mendelian Laws of Heredity 6 are illus- 

 trated by the exhibits showing the inheritance of color in 

 the common and sweet pea, and in a series of panels in a 



4 The Sea Worm Group .10. 5 The Wharf Pile Group .10. 

 G Heredity and Sex .10. 



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