On The Evolution Of The Proboscidea Classic Reprint

Excerpt from On the Evolution of the Proboscidea The accuracy of the hypothesis of an Ethiopian centre of' distribution of the Probosehlea has been fully demonstrated during the last two years by the discovery of a number of primitive members of the suh-order in the Middle and Upper Eocene beds of the F ayum district of Egypt, Where they occur associated With remains of other mammals, especially of early Hyracoidea, as well as of some remarkable reptiles. The great interest of this discovery Will be recognised When it is considered that in the paper by Professor osborn, above referred to, Africa is spoken of as the dark continent of palaeontology, for it has practically no fossil mammal history. The material for at least the beginning of such a history is now available, and it is to be hoped and expected that within the next few years much will be added to it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Evolution of Arthropod Mechanisms Any study of evolution necessarily involves theories, but if we stopped short with known facts our phylogenetic trees would wither at the roots. Particularly when we attempt to reconstruct events that took place in remote Precambrian times we can have recourse only to our imagination. Where connecting links between modern animals cannot be known, we must invent them; at least, if evolution is true, we can feel sure that connecting links really did exist. Imagination, of course, must be controlled by reasoning from the known to the unknown, but unfortunately our brains do not all reason in the same way and often produce very different concepts from the same set of facts. Yet some ideas should be more plausible than others. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Determinate Evolution in the Color-Pattern of the Lady-Beetles The dorsal color-pattern In all the American species within these groups is given for the sake of completeness, although for some species but little variation data was obtainable. This fact, together with the necessity of carrying in mind the data of variation and distribution in discussing experiments upon any given species, has led me to arrange the presenta tion according to species, after this introductory section. Furthermore, this arrangement will be more advantageous for those whose interest in this contribution is primarily taxonomic. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Proboscidea, of which only two species of elephant survive today, were one of the great mammalian orders of the Cenozoic. Their success over evolutionary time is reflected by their morphological and taxonomic diversity, their nearly worldwide distribution on every continent exceptAustralia and Antarctica, and their persistence through nearly fifty million years. Their great past ability to migrate and to adapt to changing climatic conditions and interspecific competition provides a unique laboratory for the testing of evolutionary theories and development of new concepts.This is the first complete treatise on the evolution and palaeoecology of this group for half a century. It reviews their classification and phylogeny, the early differentiation of proboscideans, the major adaptive radiations and their evolutionary patterns, and the origins and current status ofextant elephant species. Written by leading international experts, this is a major study documenting the record of terrestrial biodiversity.