Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-05
CLARK EVOLUTION
THEORY AROUSES
LIVELY DISCUSSION
Scientist Makes First Pres
entation of Theory to
Scientific Body.
COO, 900, OOO- YEAR-0LD
ROCKS FURNISH CLUES
DR.. Hrdlicka, DR.. White, DR.. Stiles
and DR.. Bassler Give Dis
senting Views.
BY THOMAS R. HENRY.

BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
A lively debate on the ancestry OF
man and the continuity of life forms
developed in meeting of the Wash
ington Academy of Sciences at the
Cosmos Club last night when DR.. Austin
H. Clark, noted National Museum biolo-
gist, presented his special theory Of
evolution for the first time before q
scientific body.
This theory holds that evolution has
progressed both by mutations and nat
ural selection within the major life
groups, but that these groups them
selves have persisted since the begin
ming in essentially their present form
1t has been praised by fundamentals
leaders as long step toward reconcil-
ing science and revealed religion.
After DR.. Clark had explained the
essential points last night, the theory
was attacked vigorously by DR.. Ales
Hrdlicka, world-famous anthropologist
and president of the academy. DR..
David White of the Geological Survey
DR.. C.. w. Stiles of the Public Health
Service, and DR.. Ray Bassler, curator OF
paleonthology at the National Museum
All insisted that the weight of evidence
in their special fields bore heavily
against the Clark theory.
Previous evolutionary theories have
pictured all living things as descendants
from some primitive, single -celled form
The difficulty, DR.. Clark said, is that
they have not explained the enormous,
unbridged gaps between such groups as
the insects and vertebrates, or even be-
tween major families of animals within
these groups, such as dogs and cats.
Old Rocks Give Clue.
The first clue to this mystery, he said,
came from the work of the late Charles
D. Walcott, secretary of the Smith
sonian Institution, with rocks from
the Cambrian era, until recently the
first known rocks containing evidence
Of life on earth. They go back APP
proximately o0,000, 900 years. DR.. Clark
was closely associated with DR.. Walcott
in examining fossils from these rocks.
They revealed. he said, that the major
groups even in this remote period were
very close to the major groups
OF today and showed no intermediate
forms. He declared that the rock con-
tanned fragments of vertebrate fossils,
although 1t has been generally supposed
that back-boned creatures. such as are
appear until millions of years later.
Since life seems to go back in parallel
lines that far, he said, 1t was reasonable
to assume that such has been the case
from the beginning.
AS far back as we can CO." he said,
insects have always been insects and
vertebrates have always been verte-
brates. Moreover, there are no inter-
mediate forms between dogs and cats,
turtles and snakes, squidS and oysters
Each has separate evolutionary tree .
Man and Ape Linked.
Man, he insisted, probably appeared
suddenly from the same general stock
as the apes from some unknown
ancestor common to all primates but
from the first was entirely distinct from
the anthropoids. Every bone in his
body is different Man has articulate
speech. The use of fire and tools, cloth
ing and ornaments were human attri-
butes from the first. Both parents are
required to rear the human infant and
to weld the family together there is q
socially effective sentiment of love ir
all humans. Taboos have existed from
the first to hold the family together
All monkeys. on the other hand, live
together in troops, each mother raising
her own young. There is no family
group among them, so far as We know
No individual ever has been found which
can be called missing link
Both DR.. Hrdlicka and DIR. Stile:
objected strenuously to the claim tina
there are no missing links. Dr. Clarl
himself, Stiles said, has classified man!
species of animals on the basis of {
single specimen, and if this could no
be done much of the structure OF Sys.
tematic zoology would fall. But If tn,
legitimacy of this method is admitted
he insisted, the world is full of missing
links between men and anthropoids
Thus both man and the orang-utar
have IL pairs of ribs. GorillaS ant
chimpanzees have Is pairs of ribs
Many men, however, are found will
Is pairs Of ribs, and such individual
must be strictly interpreted as missing
links"
Although it may be possible. to dis.
tinguish every bone of a man from
every bone of an ape, he said, this con
dition does not continue in the sof
parts OF the body. Thus the valve
in the veins of a man are peculiarl,
placed for creature standing upright
They are needed in the vertical veins
-,
serve no purpose in the horizontal
veins. They are found in both. The,
are not found, however, in the grea
vein of the back, the most importan
vertical vein of the body. This become
i'clear, DR.. Stiles said, when a man get
on all fours like a baboon Then hi
valves are found to correspond exactl,
/ to the position of the body. This. hi
tsaid, indicated that the vein-yalve sys
tenn of man was laid down In four
footed, baboon like animal.
Questions Vertebrate Fossils.
DR.. White questioned Clark,s claim
that the fragments studied in the Cam
brian rocks were vertebrate fossils. H,
insisted that the earliest vertebrat.
forms were found in the ordovician, tn,
1 next geological era, and that these wer,
creatures much lower in the scale thar
/ the simplest fishes. The further TIL
/, paleontologist goes back, he said. tn,
/! simpler become the life forms in tn,
4 rocks. He himself is now studying som,
rock material from the Grand Canyon
| nearly twice as old as the Cambrian
| If Clark's thesis is true, he said. tn,
/ major orders should appear in thes
rocks, but thus far he mas seen evidenci
of only some simple types of protozos
and aIgae. He questioned whether any
4 thing would be found so far advanced
in the life scale as worms or crusta
ceans, which are abundant in the Cam
brian.
Paleontology, or the history of life re-
vealed by its fossil remains, he said. stu
| Is III its infancy, and much evidence 81
4 the sequence Of life forms can be ex
Il pected when more material Is examined
CIark;s claims. based on Cambrian fos
sils. said DR. Bassler, are based on ma
terial obtained from only one place, anC
consequently, containing life forms ex
y isting In only one environment 1t /
II imnnssihIe he commended. To build in