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
EVIDENCE OF THE SILURIAN MOLLUSCS.—OF THE FOSSIL FLORA.—ANCIENT TREE
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
After dwelling at such length on the earlier fishes, it may seem scarce necessary to advert to their lower contemporaries the mollusca,—that great division of the animal kingdom which Cuvier places second in the descending order, in his survey of the entire series, and first among the invertebrates; and which Oken regards as the division out of which the immediately preceding class of the vertebral animals have been developed. “The fish,” he says, “is to be viewed as a mussel, from between whose shells a monstrous abdomen has grown out.” There is, however, a peculiarity in the molluscan group of the Silurian system, to which I must be permitted briefly to refer, as, to employ the figure of Sterne, it presents “two handles” of an essentially different kind, and as in all such two-handled cases, the mere special pleader is sure to avail himself of only the handle which best suits his purpose for the time.
Cuvier's first and highest class of the mollusca is formed of what are termed the Cephalopods,—a class of creatures possessed of great freedom of motion: they can walk, swim, and seize their prey; they have what even the lowest fishes, such as the lancelet, want,—a brain enclosed in a cartilaginous cavity in the head, and perfectly formed organs of sight; they possess, too, what is found in no other mollusc,—organs of hearing; and in sagacity and activity they prove more than matches for the smaller fishes, many of which they overmaster and devour.
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- Footprints of the CreatorOr, the Asterolepis of Stromness, pp. 181 - 205Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1849