The Ancient Life-history of the Earth: A Comprehensive Outline of the Principles and Leading Facts of Palæontological ScienceD. Appleton, 1898 - 407 páginas |
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abundant allied Amongst ancient animals attain beds belong Birds Bivalves body bones Brachiopods Britain calcareous Cambrian Canada carbonate Carboniferous rocks Chalk characteristic coal Coal-measures composed consists contain Corals Cretaceous Crinoids Crustaceans Dawson deposits Devonian Eocene Eozoön Europe existing extinct genus feet fishes Foraminifera formation forms fossils Ganoids genera genus Geol geological gigantic Graptolites Huronian Jurassic known Lastly Laurentian less lime Limestone Lingula living Llandeilo Lower Silurian Ludlow Mammals marine Mesozoic microscope Miocene Mollusca natural North America numerous occur Old Red Sandstone Oolitic organic origin Palæontographical Society Paleontology Paleozoic period Permian plants plates Pliocene portion possess Post-Pliocene present day principal regarded remains represented Reptiles sand sediments shales shell Silurian rocks singular siphuncle skeleton Slates species Sponges strata structure sub-kingdom surface tail teeth Tertiary thickness tion tooth Trias Triassic Trilobites types Univalves Upper Silurian valve vegetable Vertebrates Wenlock Wenlock Group whilst
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Página 108 - Most of these are very small, varying from the size of a pin's head up to that of a hemp seed ; but they are sometimes as large as a small bean (fig. 47, /), and they are commonly found in myriads together in the rock. As before said, they belong to the same great group as the living Water-fleas (Ostracoda). Besides these, we find the pod-shaped head-shields of the shrimp-like Phyllopods — such as Caryocaris (fig. 47, d) and Ceratiocaris.
Página 244 - Ichthyosaurus to cut through the waves. May it not therefore be concluded (since, in addition to these circumstances, its respiration must have required frequent access of air), that it swam upon or near the surface, arching back its long neck like a swan, and occasionally darting it down at the fish which happened to float within its reach.
Página 298 - He concluded, from the consideration- of all its characters, " that Odontopteryx was a warm-blooded, feathered biped, with wings ; and further, that it was web-footed and a fish-eater, and that in the catching of its slippery prey it was assisted by this pterosauroid armature of its jaws.
Página 291 - ... formation occupies a middle place in the Eocene series, we are struck with the comparatively modern date to which some of the greatest revolutions in the physical geography of Europe, Asia, and northern Africa must be referred. All the mountain chains, such as the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians, and Himalayas, into the composition of whose central and loftiest parts the nummulitic strata enter bodily, could have had no existence till after the middle Eocene period."— Manual, p. 232. A still more...
Página 245 - ... darting it down at the fish which happened to float within its reach. It may, perhaps, have lurked in shoal water along the coast, concealed among the seaweed, and raising its nostrils to a level with the surface from a considerable depth, may have found a secure retreat from the assaults of dangerous enemies ; while the length and flexibility of its neck may have compensated for the want of strength in its jaws, and its incapacity for swift motion through the water, by the suddenness and agility...
Página 363 - Crows seek the neighbourhood of new habitations ; and when the sun shines in spring, one may even sometimes hear the cheerful note of the Finch, and in autumn that of the Thrush.
Página 363 - ... wolves roam over the low grounds. Enormous flights of swans, geese, and ducks arrive in spring, and seek deserts where they may moult and build their nests in safety. Eagles, owls, and gulls pursue their prey along the seacoast; ptarmigan run in troops among the bushes ; little snipes are busy along the brooks and in the morasses ; the social crows seek the...
Página 313 - Univalves are extremely plentiful. . . . The Fishes of the period are very abundant. . . . The remains of Reptiles are far from uncommon. . . . The Land-tortoises make their first appearance during this period. The most remarkable form of this group is the huge Colossochelys Atlas of the Upper Miocene deposits of the Siwalik Hills in India, described by Dr. Falconer and Sir Proby Cautley. Far exceeding any living tortoise in its dimensions, this enormous animal is estimated as having had a length...
Página 244 - That it was aquatic, is evident from the form of its paddles; that it was marine, is almost equally so, from the remains with which it is universally associated ; that it may occasionally have visited the shore, the resemblance of its extremities to those of the turtle may lead us to conjecture ; its motion, however, must have been very awkward on land; its long neck must have impeded its progress...
Página 244 - ... paddles ; that it was marine is almost equally so, from the remains with which it is universally associated ; that it may have occasionally visited the shore, the resemblance of its extremities to those of the...