[Jrre-developers] ere no life

[Kleven <me...@so...>]

Ing the period of its deposition, as if the rock were made up of placoid
fossils, for it is not a question of numbers, but of rank." The
question, now, comes home to us with all its force, how did fishes of
this high order come to exist before any of the inferior class? Let some
of our evolution savans answer. The same thing may be said of other
organic divisions. It has gone to record that the shell-fish of the
Silurian system are the lowest division of the molluscous animals. While
the statement is received as true, it must be remembered that there is
some diversity of structure in this lower division, and that the
earliest molluscs are not the lowest, but the highest in the division.
The most important point, however, is, that while Brachiopoda were most
abundant, the highest molluscs existed also, their remains being found
in the Bala limestone, which is the lowest bed of molluscous fossils.
(See Silurian System, p. 308.) The number of these higher species is not
important. They existed, few or many, as early as any other of the
mollusca. If the lower had not an anterior existence, the higher were
not developed fr