

INTRODUCTION. 



Conditions necessary for the preservation of animals and plants as 

 fossils. Structure and composition of the hard parts of animals 

 and plants. Modes of fossilisation. Uses of fossils in geology. 

 Imperfection of the palseontological record. Distribution of fossils. 

 Classification. 



THE fact that bodies resembling marine animals occur 

 embedded in the rocks has been known from the earliest 

 times. But for several centuries there were two views 

 held respecting their nature. By some persons they 

 were thought to have once formed part of living 

 animals and consequently to indicate that the spot 

 where they now occur was in past ages covered by 

 the sea. Others, feeling it difficult to account for so 

 much geographical change, considered that they were 

 not of organic origin at all, but had been formed by 

 some 'plastic force' within the earth, that they were in 

 fact ' Sports of Nature.' But since these bodies resemble 

 in every essential respect those now living, and since we 

 can conceive of no other means by which they could have 

 been formed except by animals, we may at once reject 

 this hypothesis. 



The remains of animals and plants thus preserved in 

 the rocks are known as fossils, and their study forms the 

 subject of Palaeontology. The majority of fossils belong 

 w. p. 1 



