The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1913-06-21
EVOLUTION Of LIFE.
Artist Depicts It a Striking New
Group.
Officials Of American Museum Of
Natural History Highly Commend
Roy w. Miners Exhibition a.
One Of the Best There.

New York.-A new group at the
American Museum Of Natural History
recently arranged by Roy w. Miner
is highly commended by the museum
officials. who regard 1t as one Of the
best there. 1t shows animal life on
the wharf piles and is intended to
give q striking illustration Of the pro-
cess Of evolution from animal to al.
most plant life. Mr.. Miner himself
thus describes the exhibit.
THE group illustrates q balanced
association In which the struggle for
existence between animals is not ap-
parent, the majority Of the species
being plant-like and either incapable
of locomotion in the adult ftage, or
In possession Of It to q very limited
degree.
"On the broken pile in the center
Of the foreground, for example. grow.
Ing over the mussels which have COM
pletely covered its stump, are hun.
dreds of delicate pink bydroids clus.
tered in feathery colonies. Here and
there among them peep forth the
transparent solitary polyps Of the
white armed sea anemone. while the
larger brown sea anemone extends its
fringe.crowned disks on this and the
neighboring piles, interspersed with
coral red masses Of the red-beard
sponge.
Although these hower.like forms
are relatively stationary and inactive,
underneath their apparent peaceful.
ness and beauty the struggle for ex.
istence goes on as relentlessly az
among fierce free-swimming species,
but with this difference, that their
prey Is invisible to our eyes. The
waters in which they are immersed
are swarming with myriads Of micro.
scopic creatures. while every polyp.
with open rapacious mouth and ex.
tended singing tentacles, is but a
trap to entangle and engulf them, and
every sponge-colony. with its million
pores, sucks in the nutritious draft Of
organisms which are the ultimate
basis Of food for al sea life
I'm a word, sponges and polyps. In
spite OF their size and wide diversity
Of form, are but little above the
., simplest Of all animals, the one called
! protocol, and have developed al
F; typically digestive organisms.
I "Since their good is everywhere
present, organs Of locomotlon are mol
needed to obtain 1t. Special senses
and directive intelligence, or instincts
have not been definitely evolved, since
the evolution Of these powers always
goes hand in hand with that OF loco
motor organs.
1T Is true that certain polyps pos
scss somewhat aimless and imperfec
methods of locomotion. such as tn
slow-creeping movement of the SCI
anemones and the umbrella mode Q
propulsion peculiar to hydromedusa
and the true jellyfishes-a beautiful
example OF which Is shown lazil
swimming near the broken pile l
the group. But the polyps as a Who'll
may be considered as mere sac-lik
stomachs, this specialization in dige'
ton being their NEST striking az
! vance, aside from their multicellula
structure, over their protozoan pr
genitors. Yet there is good reaso
4 to believe that a polyp.like conditio
such as this is ancestral to the stru
ture Of all the higher and more con
q pick groups of the animal kingdom.
3 Associated with sponges an
. polyps upon the wharf piles are man
4 other sedentary animals which, lii
. them. feed upon the mIcro-organisn
y Of the sea. At first glance these see
3 to be of hardly higher organizatic
than the polyps. but an examinatic
Of their structure at once shows the
Il to be members Of much higher groul
= In the scale OF life.
= these animals are so closely adal
4 ed to an attached mode Of life al
4 diet Of heterogeneous that the ave
! age observer. unacquainted with the
n afinities, would fail to recognize the
4 as being included In the same gre
I phylum.
4 Finally. everything on the piles a
( various species Of the sea squirts
+ ascidians, singly and In coloni'
4 These small sac-like creatures. ca
3 with projecting pair Of tubes,
p "siphons," though apparently insign
. cant, are in reality highly INTEREST,"
4 from an evolutionary standpoint. o
. species is represented as growing
g large yellow masses on the upper ps
! Of one of the piles. Some of the
g dividuals Of this species are mark
3 with dark star-like colonies Of anott
Z ascidian which grow upon tn