The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-06-07

Ing IOrnlS. riot or lie followed.
South American Fauna.
Not only was the character of the
South American fauna totally changed
by the invasion of these creatures
from the north, which soon swarmed
over the continent, but it was also
changed through the development
wrought in the old inhabitants by the
severe competition to which they
were exposed. Many of the smaller
or less capable types died out. Others
developed enormous bulk or COM
plete armor protection, and thereby
saved themselves from the new beasts.
In consequence. South America soon
became populated with various new
species of mastodons, saber-toothed
tigers, camels, horses, deer, cats,
wolves, hooved creatures of strange
Shapes and some of them of giant size,
all of these being descended from the
Immigrant types; and side by side with
them there grew up large autochthon-
GUS unguIates, giant ground slothS
well-ntgh as large as elephants, and
armored creatures as bulky as an OK
but structurally of the armadillo or
ant-eater-type; and some of these lat
ter not only held their own, but ac-
tually in their turn wandered north
over the isthmus and invaded North
America. A fauna as varied as that
| of Africa today, as abundant in species
and individuals, even more noteworthy
| because of it's huge size or odd type
| and because of the terrific proves of
the more formidable fesh-eaters, was
thus developed in South America, and
| hourished for a period which human
history would call very long indeed,
but which geologically was short.
Then, for no reason that we can as
sign, destruction fell on this fauna.
| All the great and terrible creatures
| died out, the same fate Detailing the
| changed representatives of the old
autochthonous fauna and the descen-
| dantS of the migrants that had come
| down from the north. Ground sloth
| and glyptodon, saber-tooth, horse and
mastodon, and all the associated ami
mails of large size, vanished, and
| South America, though still retaining
| its connection with North America,
| once again became a land with a
| mammalian life small and weak COM
| pared to that of North America and
| the Old World. Its fauna is now
marked, for instance, by the presence
| of medium sized deer and cats, fox
like wolves, and small camel-like
creatures. as well as by the presence
of small armadillos, sloths and ant
eaters. In other words, it includes
| diminutive representatives of the
| giants among the older forms of
mammalia and of giants among the
new and intrusive kinds. The change
was widespread and extraordinary,
| and with our present means of infor-
| nation it is wholly inexplicable. There
was no ice age, and it is hard to i'm
| agine any cause which would account
| for the extinction of so many species
| of huge or moderate size, while small
| er representatives, and here and there
| medium sized representatives, of
many of them were left.
| Periods of Change.
Now, as to all of these phenomena
| if not hOmOlogieS, at least certain an
alogies, in the history of human soci-
cites, in the history of the rise to
prominence, of the development and
| change, of the temporary dominance
and death or Transformation, of the
groups Of varying kind which form
races or nations. Here, as in biology,
| it is necessary to keep in mind that
we use each of the words birth and
death" youth" and "age" often very
| loosely, and sometimes as denoting
either one of two totally different con-
| ceptions. OF course, in one sense there
| is no such thing as an "old" or
young" nation, any more than there
| is an "old" or young family. Phylo-
genetically, the line of ancestral de-
scent must be of exactly the same
length for every existing individual,
and for every group Of individuals,
whether forming a family or a nation.
All that can properly be meant by the
terms new and young" is that in
given line Of descent there has sud-
denly come a period of rapid change.
This change may arise either from
new development or transformation of
the old elements, or else from new
grouping of these elements with other
and varied elements; SO that the words
new nation or young nation may
have a real difference of significance in
one case from what they have in an
other.
AS in biology, so in human history.
new form may result from the spe-
cialization of a long existing and hith-
erto very slowly changing generalized
or non-specialized form; as. for in
stance, when barbaric race from
variety of causes suddenly develops a
more complex cultivation and civiliza-
ton. This is what occurred, for in
stance, in western Europe during the
centuries of the Teutonic and later the
andinavian ethnic overfows from
the north. All the modern countries
of western Europe are descended from
the states created by these northern
invaders When first created they could
be called new" or young" states in
the sense that part or all of the peo-
pie composing them were descended
from races that hitherto had not been
civilized at all, and that therefore for
the first time entered on the career
of civilized communities In the south
ern part of western Europe the new
states thus formed consisted in bulk
of the inhabitants already in the land
under the Roman empire: and it was
here that the new kingdoms first took
shape. Through a reflex action their
influence then extended back into the
cold forests from which the invaders
had come, and Germany and Scandi-
navia witnessed the rise of commune
ties with essentially the same civiliza
ton as their southern neighbors;
though in those communities, unlike
the southern communities, there was
no infusion of new blood. and in each
case the new civilized nation which
gradually developed was composed en-
tirely of members of the same race
which in the same region had for ages
lived the life of a slowly changing