Gilpin observer., 1913-06-12
Artist Depicts 1t in a Striking
New Group.
officials of American Museum Of
Natural History Highly Commend
Roy w. Miners Exhibition as
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 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 a 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 stage, or
In possession Of 1t to a 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 it's
fringe-crowned disks on this and the
neighboring piles, interspersed with
coral red masses of the red-b beard
sponge.
Although these fiower-like forms
are relatively stationary and inactive.
underneath their apparent peaceful
ness and beauty the struggle for ex-
istence goes on as relentlessly as
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 sting1ng 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 ali 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
protozoa. and have developed as
typically digestive organisms.
Since their good is everywhere
present, organs of locomotion are not
needed to obtain it. 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
sess somewhat aimless and imperfect
methods of locomotion. such as the
slow-creeping movement OF the sea
anemones and the umbrella mode OF
propulsion peculiar to hydromedusae
and the true jellyfshes-a beautiful
example of which is shown lazily
swimming near the broken pile in
the group. But the polyps as a whole
may be considered as mere sac-like
stomachs, this specialization In diges
tion being their most striking ad.
vance. aside from their multicellular
structure. over their protozoan pro
genitors. Yet there is good reason
to believe that a polyplike condition
such as this is ancestral to the struc
ture Of all the higher and more com
plex groups of the animal kingdom.
Associated with sponges and
polyps upon the wharf piles are many
other sedentary animals which. like
them, feed upon the micro-organisms
of the sea. At first glance these seem
to be OF hardly higher organization
than the polyps. but an examination
OF their structure at once shows them
to be members Of much higher groups
in the scale of life
These animals are so closely adapt
cd to an attached mode Of life ant