Book contents
- Frontmatter
- TO THE READER
- Contents
- LIST OF WOOD-CUTS
- STROMNESS AND ITS ASTEROLEPIS.—THE LAKE OF STENNIS
- THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
- THE RECENT HISTORY OF THE ASTEROLEPIS.—ITS FAMILY
- CEREBRAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE EARLIER VERTEBRATA.—ITS APPARENT PRINCIPLE
- THE ASTEROLEPIS.—ITS STRUCTURE, BULK, AND ASPECT
- FISHES OF THE SILURIAN ROCKS, UPPER AND LOWER.—THEIR RECENT HISTORY, ORDER, AND SIZE
- HIGH STANDING OF THE PLACOIDS.—OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED
- THE PLACOID BRAIN.—EMBRYOTIC CHARACTERISTICS NOT NECESSARILY OF A LOW ORDER
- THE PROGRESS OF DEGRADATION.—ITS HISTORY
- EVIDENCE OF THE SILURIAN MOLLUSCS.—OF THE FOSSIL FLORA.—ANCIENT TREE
- SUPERPOSITION NOT PARENTAL RELATION.—THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE
- LAMARCKIAN HYPOTHESIS OF THE ORIGIN OF PLANTS.—ITS CONSEQUENCES
- THE TWO FLORAS, MARINE AND TERRESTRIAL.—BEARING OF THE EXPERIENCE ARGUMENT
- THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS IN ITS EMBRYOTIC STATE.—OLDER THAN ITS ALLEGED FOUNDATIONS
- FINAL CAUSES.—THEIR BEARING ON GEOLOGIC HISTORY.—CONCLUSION
HIGH STANDING OF THE PLACOIDS.—OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- TO THE READER
- Contents
- LIST OF WOOD-CUTS
- STROMNESS AND ITS ASTEROLEPIS.—THE LAKE OF STENNIS
- THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
- THE RECENT HISTORY OF THE ASTEROLEPIS.—ITS FAMILY
- CEREBRAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE EARLIER VERTEBRATA.—ITS APPARENT PRINCIPLE
- THE ASTEROLEPIS.—ITS STRUCTURE, BULK, AND ASPECT
- FISHES OF THE SILURIAN ROCKS, UPPER AND LOWER.—THEIR RECENT HISTORY, ORDER, AND SIZE
- HIGH STANDING OF THE PLACOIDS.—OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED
- THE PLACOID BRAIN.—EMBRYOTIC CHARACTERISTICS NOT NECESSARILY OF A LOW ORDER
- THE PROGRESS OF DEGRADATION.—ITS HISTORY
- EVIDENCE OF THE SILURIAN MOLLUSCS.—OF THE FOSSIL FLORA.—ANCIENT TREE
- SUPERPOSITION NOT PARENTAL RELATION.—THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE
- LAMARCKIAN HYPOTHESIS OF THE ORIGIN OF PLANTS.—ITS CONSEQUENCES
- THE TWO FLORAS, MARINE AND TERRESTRIAL.—BEARING OF THE EXPERIENCE ARGUMENT
- THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS IN ITS EMBRYOTIC STATE.—OLDER THAN ITS ALLEGED FOUNDATIONS
- FINAL CAUSES.—THEIR BEARING ON GEOLOGIC HISTORY.—CONCLUSION
Summary
We have seen that some of the Silurian placoids were large of size; the question still remains, Were they high in intelligence and organization?
The Edinburgh Reviewer, in contending with the author of the “Vestiges,” replies in the affirmative, by claiming for them the first place among fishes. “Taking into account,” he says, “the brain and the whole nervous, circulating, and generative systems, they stand at the highest point of a natural ascending scale.” They are fishes, he again remarks, that rank among “the very highest types of their class.”
“The fishes of this early age, and of all other ages previous to the Chalk,” says his antagonist, in reply, “are, for the most part, cartilaginous. The cartilaginous fishes,—Chondropterygii of Cuvier,—are placed by that naturalist as a second series in his descending scale; being, however, he says, ‘in some measure parallel to the first.’ How far this is different from their being the highest types of the fish class, need not be largely insisted upon. Linnæus, again, was so impressed by the low characters of many of this order, that he actually ranked them with worms. Some of the cartilaginous fishes, nevertheless, have certain peculiar features of organization, chiefly connected with re-production, in which they excel other fish; but such features are partly partaken of by families in inferior sub-kingdoms, showing that they cannot truly be regarded as marks of grade in their own class.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Footprints of the CreatorOr, the Asterolepis of Stromness, pp. 123 - 135Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1849