body, the food, and habits, and haunts, and mode of life of creatures that ceased to exist before the creation of the human race, can with a high degree of probability be ascertained.
Concurrent with this rapid extension of our knowledge of the comparative anatomy of extinct families of the ancient inhabitants of the earth, has been the attention paid to fossil Conchology; a subject of vast importance in investigating the records of the changes that have occurred upon the surface of our globe.
Still more recently, the study of botanists has been directed to the History of fossil vegetables; and although, from the late hour at which this subject has been taken up, our knowledge of fossil plants is much in arrear of the progress made in Anatomy and Conchology, we have already a mass of most important evidence, showing the occurrence of a series of changes in vegetable life, coextensive and contemporaneous with those that have pervaded both the higher and lower orders of the animal kingdom.
The study of Organic Remains, indeed, forms the peculiar feature and basis of modern Geology, and is the main cause of the progress this science has made, since the commencement of the present century. We find certain families of Organic Remains pervading strata of every age, under nearly the same generic forms which they present among existing organizations.[1] Other families, both of animals and vegetables, are limited to particular formations, there being certain points where entire groups ceased to exist, and were replaced by others of a different character. The changes of genera and species are still more frequent; hence, it has been well observed, that to attempt an investigation of the structure and revolutions of the earth, without applying minute attention to the evidences afforded by
- ↑ E. g. The Nautilus, Echinus, Terebratula, and various forms of Corals; and among Plants, the Ferns, Lycopodiaceæ, and Palms.
