CHAPTER V 
EVIDENCES FROM PALAEONTOLOGY 
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF THE EVIDENCE 
[The word palaeontology means literally the science of ancient 
life. Practically, it is the study of the fossil remains of extinct animals 
and plants, including any traces of their existence, such as footprints, 
impressions in slate, clay, or coal. The evidence from the fossils has 
definite elements of strength in that it deals with actual organisms that 
formerly inhabited the earth’s surface. Many of these species must 
have left descendants, some of which are doubtless living in a modified 
condition today. Palaeontology should be able either strongly to 
support or to contradict the idea of evolution. If its data accord with 
the evolution idea and are opposed to the special creation idea, the 
fossils may be said to be evidences of evolution. 
The weakness of the study of fossils lies in the fact that extremely 
few samples of the living forms that have existed in the past have 
been preserved, and of those that have been preserved only a very 
small percentage have been dug up and studied by capable scientists. 
Many types of animals and plants, moreover, are soft and capable 
of preservation only under such exceptional conditions that but 
a rare specimen here and there over the world, scattered through 
various widely separated strata, has been found. Only very common 
or abundant types are likely to have been preserved and discovered, 
for the chances of an uncommon form being preserved would be small 
and the further chances of these infrequently preserved specimens 
being found would be infinitely smaller. 
The great majority of fossil remains are fragmentary or preserved 
very incompletely, so that only the hard parts have come down 
to us. There are, of course, many important exceptions to this rule, 
and these are our chief reliance in interpreting ancient life. 
That Darwin fully realized the vulnerable points in the palaeonto- 
logical record is shown by the following quotation from the Origin of 
Species:—ED.] 
“T look at the geological record as a history of the world imper- 
fectly kept and written in a changing dialect; of this history we possess 
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