Evening star., 1933-05-07


ably for the living that was now . great deal
harder to get than it had been before.
THEY were like the energetic tribal chieftafns
] Of the ancient world ct the breakup OF the
Roman Empire. who founded the first feudal
aristocracies. Their defendants, bigger and
more heavily armored became the real barons
Of the geological middle ages. the dinosaurs
Thus An entirely new ruling group arose out
Of the depression, and when prosperity came
again they were its masters.
But they learned nothing from the expert
ences Of their ruined predecessors.
"The MesoDoc reptiles were megaloManiacs
Of the most confirmed sort" says Dr. Crones.
They were the masters of all the important
habitats The dinosaurs ruled the land, ma
rme reptiles invaded and conquered the sea.
and the flying dragons or pterodactyls were
lords Of the air.
But scurrying underfoot Of the giant dino
saurs were . few mouse-hke primitive NAM
mails. They were subservient, indeed to the
gigantic masters Of the moment who. - Is
Characteristic of the great (and especially the
near-great). probably were totally unaware q
the mammals presence.
But these small creatures. like some appar-
entity insisnincant individuals and many un-
promising infant industries, had great poten-
tialities. They proved their mettle 1T the close
Of the Meso3oic, when the earth went through
one Of her really great depressions.
This was, indeed, . time Of revolution and
of the 'reddest sort, for the reptiles like Rus
sian royalists, were nearly blotted out and they
have never again been particularly dominant
But the small mammals weathered the hard
times successfully. Out of their crude Begin
nings have come the greatly diversified and rui-
ing mammalian types of today"
They we're one group which was not over
expanded at the time when opportune depres-
sion hit them. In fact, they sold the market
short and made their fortunes in the steady
decline of reptilian values. The roots of that
great modern spreading tree Of mammalian
types were firmly anchored in the very depFes-
sion which was too drastic for the optimistic
dinosaurs.
So far DR.. Croneis He does not tell the 0nal
tale, or point the final moral perhaps as being
too obvious But for the sake of completeness
the story of man himself might be added.
For man also was born Of . depression, enc
Of the greatest Of depressions Of more recent
geologic time the Pleistocene Ice Age.
THE pre-glacial men, If they existed at al,
lived in days of ease and didn't have TO
hustle for q living. So. in all likelihood,
they would have been contented to remain
very much like their geological cousins, the
apes, clever and entertaining up to q certain
point but dull beyond that and quite ire
sponsible and improvident
The glaciers changed all that. BY the time
the Ice Age was half over, We have plenty Of
evidence that man was on the job, looking out
for Number One and Family In first-class order
He had learned to keep warm in spite of the
glaciers, by taking to caves or building wickiups
on the river banks where he fshed and ~
wearing clothing made of animal SKINS
He had invented improved tools and weapons
of stone, which no ape ever did or thought Of.
He had made the most important discovery Of
all human history, lowbrow though he was: he
had learned the use of fire.