The Ancient Life-history of the Earth: A Comprehensive Outline of the Principles and Leading Facts of Palæontological Science

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D. Appleton, 1897 - 407 páginas

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Página 248 - 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 355 - Eagles, owls, and gulls pursue their prey along the sea-coast; ptarmigan run in troops amongst the bushes; little snipes are busy along the brooks, and in the morasses; the social crows seek the neighbourhood of men's 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 297 - ... 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 355 - ... 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 307 - 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 248 - 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 249 - ... 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 248 - ... 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...
Página 297 - When we have once arrived at the conviction that the numraulitic 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...
Página 11 - By a fossil is meant any body, or the traces of the existence of any body, whether animal or vegetable, which has been buried in the earth by natural causes.

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