Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-12-10

from type called creodonts. These an
cestral creatures were somewhat ike the
carnivora of today, but smaller, and pro
vided with duller claws and less prain.
Professor Osborn is now hunting for the
common ancestor of the placentals. mar
snpiais ana monotremes; ~ Camnrhugs,
the other day he said that this animal
was probably small. living entirely on
land, and either insectivorous or else om-
niVorous. There is abundant evidences
lhat many small animals in the middle
ana upper JuraSSic rocks were not mar
sup1aIs, put insectivorous placentals, ful-
iiliing all the conditions necessary 10
ldentlfy them with the ancestor of both
the creodonts and insectivora. Just now,
Professor Osborn added South Africa is
q centre of the utmost interest and for
further developments i'm regard TO the or
| igln OF mammals the investigator must
probably look to the fossil life of the
karoo beds.
Another well-known American, Profess
sor Marsh of Yale, was present at the
geological congress and discussed this
| subject. He dwelt on the great gap that
exists between the reptiles and mammals.
ana even for the latter he was NOT sure
mammals comprise so MANY groups that
ne Is inclined to question whether even
that limited class is derived from a SIN
| gle parental stock.
In contrast with the moderate hopeful
ness of Professor Osborn and the marked
caution of Professor Marsh. the outspok-
en- certainty that everything Is settled,
evinced by Professor Haeckel of Ger
pany, at this meeting deserves mention.
| He affirmed positively that Huxley Is
| right in deriving the higher mammals
| from the lower ones and then carried the
| line straight back to single ancestral
| form. which lived in the Triassic period.
| This in turn was descended, he said, from
a Carboniferous period amphibian, and.
prior thereto, from Devonian fish.
While confident that the fishes of the De-
| vonian era We're the offspring of an in
vertebrate stock, Professor Haeckel adj
| mitted that the junction between the YER
| tebrate and invertebrate stems was hid
den in obscurity at present.
! Not the least important feature of this
| discussion was a consideration of the val
| lie of embryology in tracing back geneai-
| ogies of this sort. Hitherto, biologists
have relied almost entirely upon their
comparisons of adult forms, both of ami
mails living today and those whose re-
mains were found i'm the rocks. But with
| in a few years it has been discovered that
| the embryo, in its development shows
| much of the progress of ancestral life
| from early to recent organization, and
| thus to some extent repeats the history
| of thousands. even millions of years in a
| few weeks, or months at the most. Hence
| there is a disposition among certain
significance to the collections of cmbry-
onic evidence which are being accumu-
| lated by naturaliStS in connection with
i any species of living creature that they
are studying.
On the other hand, it is coming to be
| recognized that enthusiasm is likely to
| carry the embryologist too far in his in
| ferenccS. While il was apparent from the
| talk at Cambridge that there are weak
| points in this new class of evidence and
| from it would seem to be necessary. II
| still appears to possess enough merit to
deserve gathering, prepare ton and exam
nation for little while longer. at least.