156 THE DARWINIAN THEORY 



the Dinosaurus for example. It will be these domi- 

 nant races which will be the most likely to leave 

 fossil remains — as with the buildings and records 

 of man — and, especially if of large size, to give char- 

 acter to the age. Yet these do not usually stand in 

 the direct line of ancestry of living forms, which 

 are descended from collateral branches, which at 

 those times were insignificant. This consideration 

 explains at once the apparently sudden gaps, and 

 the difficulty in obtaining evidence of actual ancestors. 

 Dominant types often die out, and are succeeded by 

 others whose early history is difficult to unravel, 

 because overshadowed by the then dominant forms. 



On the whole, therefore, the search for links is 

 not so hopeless as it appeared at first' sight, when 

 we once realise what a link really is, and what we 

 have to look for. Additions are yearly, or almost 

 monthly, made to our knowledge of the former his- 

 tory of the earth, in the discovery of fossils, now 

 that their true importance is recognised. 



Before concluding the subject of missing links 

 it will be well to refer briefly to that aspect of the 

 problem known familiarly as the " monkey question." 

 The Darwinian theory does most undoubtedly 

 imply that there is a blood-relationship between 

 man and the lower animals ; and it is also a most 

 undoubted fact that, of these animals, the anthropoid 

 apes — the orang, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla — 

 are those which are most closely allied to man. 

 Such being the case, much ingenuity has been 

 exercised in the search for " missing-links " which 

 will bridge over the gap between man and monkey, 



