EVIDENCES FROM GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION II5 
workshops of the north,” and the balance is in favour of Asia as the 
cradle of modern mammals. 
Is it an idle dream to think of the future? A survey of the past 
reveals the vanishing of whole faunas from extensive countries, which 
were then repeopled by other forms from elsewhere. What has 
happened before, may happen in times to come. Countless groups, 
once flourishing, are no more; many others have had their day and are 
now on the decline, whilst others are flourishing now, are even in the 
increase and seem to have a future before them. Such favoured 
assemblies are the toads and frogs, lizards and snakes, Passerine birds 
and rodents, mostly the small-sized members of their tribes; the days 
of giants are past. All this has happened in the natural course of 
events, without the influence of man, who only within most recent 
times has become the most potent and destructive factor to the ancient 
faunas of the world. 
SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT FOR EVOLUTION AS BASED ON 
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION 
[On the hypothesis of special creation or on any other hypothesis 
except evolution that has even been suggested, the extremely intricate 
patchwork of animal and plant distribution remains an unsolvable 
picture puzzle, without rhyme or reason. When this puzzle is attacked 
with the aid of the evolutionary idea, the key to the whole maze is 
furnished and the difficulties clear up with remarkable ease. The 
whole hodgepodge makes sense and we can understand many pre- 
viously irreconcilable facts. In no field does the working hypothesis 
of evolution work to such advantage as in this field. 
On the basis that a species arises at one place, spreads out over 
large areas, becoming modified as it goes, that new species are formed 
from old through modification after isolation from the parent-stock, 
how do the facts of distribution look when examined in detail? 
1. Cosmopolitan groups, those with the widest distribution, are 
those to whom no barriers are sufficient to check migration, e.g., 
strong fliers, Man, earthworms carried by Man. 
2. Restricted groups are usually those to which barriers are 
readily set up and are frequently the last remnants of a formerly 
successful fauna or flora, which continue to survive only in some 
restricted area where the conditions are rather more favorable than 
elsewhere. 
