212 



Geological Evidence of Origin of Species. 



anatomist. I will conclude this branch of my subject by 

 asking, if evolution does not account for such facts as the 

 above, what other hypothesis will? There remains the 

 alternative of Hugh Miller, supported by Prof. Agassiz, 

 that species are separate creations produced after a divine 

 plan. But that each species should have been destroyed, 

 and its place supplied by a new creation ; when the new form 

 could have been elaborated by slight changes in the old 

 one, seems to me a less natural hypothesis than the one I 

 have advocated. 



2. The Geographical Distribution of Organic Life corresponds 

 with the Distribution of Fossil Animals and Plants in the 

 Epoch preceding the Recent. 



The fossils found in the later Tertiary closely resemble the 

 living forms now inhabiting the same regions. Thus, in 

 Australia, the living mammals (with one or two possible ex- 

 ceptions)are marsupial, and the Tertiary fossil mammalia 

 are also marsupial. Outside of Australia, there is no liv- 

 ing marsupial except the opossum, and the Tertiary mar- 

 supials outside of Australia are of the type of the opossum. 

 South America is the home of the Edentata represented by 

 the sloth, the ant-eater, and the armadillo. In the later 

 Tertiary deposits we have corresponding fossil forms. 

 The sloths are represented by the gigantic Megatherium, 

 and other similar forms, while the armadillo has its fossil 

 representative in the huge Glyjptodon. In New Zealand are 

 found curious wingless birds, and the most conspicuous 

 fossils of the later Tertiary in those islands are also wing- 

 less birds, but of enormous size. Living monkeys are 

 principally represented by two types — the Platyrhine, with 

 the nostrils far apart, and the Katarhine with the nostrils 

 close together. The former are confined to America, the 

 latter to the Old World. So, also, all American fossil mon- 

 keys are Plalyrhine, and all old world species Katarhine. 



