Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/396

376 this department of our subject I have already laid before you on a previous occasion, and hence need not dwell upon them here.

In this rapid sketch of the history of paleontology I have thought it best to speak of the earlier periods more in detail, as they are less generally known, and especially as they indicate the growth of the science, and the obstacles it had to surmount. With the present work in paleontology, moreover, you are all more or less familiar, as the results are now part of the current literature. To assign every important discovery to its author would have led me far beyond my present plan. I have only endeavored to indicate the growth of the science by citing the more prominent works that mark its progress, or illustrate the prevailing opinions and state of knowledge at the time they were written.

In considering what has been accomplished, directly or indirectly, it is well to bear in mind that without paleontology there would have been no science of geology. The latter science originated from the study of fossils, and not the reverse, as generally supposed. Paleontology, therefore, is not a mere branch of geology, but the foundation on which that science mainly rests. This fact is a sufficient excuse, if one were wanting, for noting the early opinions in regard to the changes of the earth's surface, as these changes were first studied to explain the position of fossils. The investigation of the latter first led to theories of the earth's formation, and thus to geology. When speculation replaced observation, fossils were discarded, and for a time the mineral characters of strata were thought to be the key to their position and age. For some time after this, geologists, as we have seen, apologized for using fossils to determine formations, but for the last half century their value for this purpose has been fully recognized.

The services which paleontology has rendered to botany and zoölogy are less easy to estimate, but are very extensive. The classification of these sciences has been rendered much more complete by the intercalation of many intermediate forms. The probable origin of various living species has been indicated by the genealogies suggested by extinct types; while our knowledge of the geographical distribution of animals and plants at the present day has been greatly improved by the facts brought out in regard to the former distribution of life on the globe.

Among the vast number of new species which have been added are the representatives of a number of new orders entirely unknown among living forms. The distribution of these extinct orders among the different classes is interesting, as they are mainly confined to the higher groups. Among the fossil plants no new orders have yet been found. There are none known among the Protozoa or the Mollusca. The Radiates have been enriched by the extinct orders of Blastoidea,