The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-10-05
-Dietz on Science
PAST REVEALED
IN ROCK LAYERS
BENEATH SOIL
Dark Ages UnraveIed by
Fossil Skeleton Dug
by Biologists.
BY DAVID DIETZ
Scripps Howard Science Editor

Few stories are more exciting and
interesting than the story Of how
science has unraveled the past his
tory Of life on earth.
From the rock layers the scien-
lists have dug the fossil skeletons
of monsters of the past. Great di-
nosaurs which once roamed the
earth, archaic sharks which swan
in ancient seas. gigantic shell-fish
and queer creatures Of many sorts
have been brought to light by the
biologists pick and shovel.
Unfortunately, the story is too
often buried in scientific accounts
bristling with Latin names, formi-
dable terms and unfamiliar express
sions. Such technical treaties are
necessary, of course, for the pro-
ress of science and the instruction
Of students. But they are discour-
aging to the layman.
The layrnan will find the &C
count which he has been seeking in
"Thc World of Fossils" just pub
lished % D. Appleton g. Co., in its
excellent New World of Science
series. Oast week 1 called atten-
ton to another splendid new VOL
ume in this series, Heat and Its
Workings" by Professor Morton
Mott SMITH
Called World of Fossils"
DR.. Carroll Lane Fenton, a pro-
fessional paleontologist, as students
Of fossils are called in the world OF
science, is the author Of THE World
Of Fossils"
He writes with a genuine en-
thusiasm for his subject, an under
standing of the romantic as we'll as
the scientific side of his work, and
in language which is simple, direct
and nontechnical.
Fossils come back to life in Dr.
Fenton's excellent book. Here, for
example, is his picture of life in one
of the earliest inland shallow seas,
a sea that once stretched for hum
dreds of miles where the Rocky
mountains now rise:
Waters Were Shallow
ITS waters were shallow and
generally quiet; into them flowed
silt-laden streams from lands to
both east and west. AS often hap
pens in shallow marine basins, both
plants and animals were present
in abundance, their remains being
heaped in those sheltered pools to
which currents might roll or drift
them.
las we look at the array of crea-
lures gathered in these pools, or
scattered about the muddy bottom,
we notice seaweeds of several types,
glass SpongeS, shells, and crawling,
brightly colored sea worms. Animals
chat look like ShrimpS dart here
and there through the water; crus-
taceans with the forms Of clans put
out jointed legs on which they
crawl
Scavengers at Work
Movement among the dead frondS
and bodies show where burrowing
Scavengers are at work, prying
through rubbish in search of meals.
More striking than any of these,
however, are animals which suggest
f1attended. flexible crabs, or small
Holsters whose pincers have been
lost in battle. Each has a large
head bearing two smooth, greenish,
family glowing eyes.
From the head, long antennae
project, waving to and fro as the
animal crawls; behind it is a body
made up of joined segments which
only partly cover the jointed legs
beneath, Of which one pair match
every segment. The tail is little
more than a small button that
finishes the tapering body"