Reviews 



Climate and Evolution. By W. D. Matthew. Annals of the New 

 York Academy of Science, Vol. XXIV, pp. 1 71-318. 



This important paper is notable for the emphasis it lays on climatic 

 variations and physical changes as agencies dominating organic evolu- 

 tion, for its adherence to the essential permanency of the continents, and 

 for its unhesitating rejection of oceanic eversions and of extravagant 

 bridge-building across abysmal depths for mere convenience in explain- 

 ing biological distribution. In all these the author is loyal to the 

 agencies attested by the geologic record and declines to go beyond them 

 in summoning agencies of which the record gives no substantial authenti- 

 cation. He appeals to the powerful influence of climatic oscillations 

 running back over the whole history of vertebrate life and beyond, whose 

 verity is being constantly supported afresh by new evidence, and to the 

 co-operative influence of physical changes connected with periodic dias- 

 trophism and denudation which have constantly varied the environment 

 of life. 



In addition to the long-recognized evidences of the essential per- 

 manency of the continents, the author cites the new support that springs 

 from the geodetic evidences of isostasy and accepts all the difficulties 

 this may seem to impose on the elucidation of biologic distribution. The 

 author turns some of these supposed difficulties into evidences of the 

 permanence of the ocean basins, by citing the obvious fact that a bridge 

 between two great land masses should give a normal intermingling of the 

 two faunas and floras inhabiting them and not a meager selection of 

 forms susceptible of abnormal distribution by occasional modes of trans- 

 portation. In this the author makes a notable contribution to the more 

 critical study of what abnormal distribution really means. To the 

 reviewer it seems probable that a really critical analysis of most cases of 

 animal and plant distribution that are not in obvious harmony with the 

 existing embossments and ridges, submerged or unsubmerged, will be 

 found to imply selective transportation, not the normal commingling of 

 species that naturally arises from a physical connection available to all 

 species. The author's contribution to a closer scrutiny of the biological 

 evidences of anomalous distribution is one of the first order of value. 

 For its details the reader must consult the paper itself. 



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