Evening star., 1937-09-30
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field.
Laboratory and Study.

BY THOMAS X. HENRY.

Man may read his own future in the
cryptic pages of the rocks.
He is moving subconsciously toward
probable extinction in response to forces
that have operated since the beginnings
of life on earth. associated with the con-
slant battle between the eater and the
eaten.
Such is one of the suggestions in the
first report Of the National Research
Councils Committee on Paleoecology-
the relationship between extinct life
forms to their environments and to each
other-which has just been issued. Says
DR.. E. c. Case of the University of Mich
igan in his report on the paleoecology
of vertebrates:
Defense may be by active or passive
resistance. Flight, or offensive defense,
or passive donning of armor may all be
employed but any method implies
reason for it's adoption, and every ad
vance in either method implies increased
power of attack from the eater. The
process of such adjustment is continu-
Gus and leads to specialization which IS
the shortest road to extinction. In the
case of armored forms versus armed
forms it has led invariably to but one
result and in every group in every age
the story has been repeated. AS the
armor grew heavier the projectile and
propulsive force grew stronger. Tooth
and claw and muscular power have been
balanced against ever heavier and more
complete armor. The invariable result
has been the extinction of both. The
same history has been written and is
being written by warning men. One
dares prophecy the same result"
Another astonishing deduction from
the relatively new science of paleOeco-
logy, DR.. Case points out. is that plants
from the beginning have been more pro-
gressive than animals in their evolution
toward modern forms. Thus modern
leaf-shedding trees sheltered some of
the great dinosaurs during their last
days on earth. This has led to much
confusion in time associations but, says
DR.. Case, "the paleoecologist who would
see rightly must not finch from the vi
sion of tyrannoSauruS stalking through
forest of modern aspect. Certain if
such vision were granted he would give
thanks for the towering heighth of the
elm or the sturdiness of some giant oak"
The new science also may shed light
Oil Vic COHllilS VI ulSCdSC llllO Illc WOIlQ.
Single-celled bacteria in some form must
have been among the earliest of all
forms of life and present practically
from the beginning. There is plenty of
evidence that throughout the ages they
have been causing the decay of organic
material, both plant and animal. But
there has been scant evidence of actual
disease caused by them.
Now, DR.. Case points out, the rather
sudden disappearance of the great
reptiles just before the beginning of the
evolution of modern life forms after
they had dominated the earth for a
hundred million years has always been
mystery. They may have been wiped
out by the first Of all great epidemics.
The blood of modern reptiles swarms
with the single-celled animals known as
protozoans, some of which are respons-
ible for virulent and fatal diseases OF
cold-blooded animals. Shortly before
the dinosaurs begin to disappear the
first blood-Sucking flies leave their first
traces in the rocks. These insects usually
carry the protozoans from one animal to
another. The interval between their ap-
pearance and the disappearance of the
dinosaurs is just about sufficient to have
allowed the development of this sort of
an epidemic.
Nearly every animal group as it nears
extinction, DR.. Case points out, develops
giant forms. He says:
"The term giantism is, OF course, used
relatively Normally minute animals
may have giant species or individuals,
as we'll as normally much larger animals.
1t has been noticed and commented
upou that In giant forms Of veftebrates