This earlier stage is
lost in those primitive ages from which not a single leaf has
survived in the rocks. We can only say that it is probable that
the Mosses, Ferns, Lycopods, etc., arose independently from the
primitive level. But the higher and more important development is
now much clearer. The Coal-forest is not simply a kingdom of
Cryptogams. It is a world of aspiring and mingled types. Let it
be subjected to some searching test, some tremendous spell of
adversity, and we shall understand the emergence of the higher
types out of the luxuriant profusion and confusion of forms.
* See, especially, D. H. Scott, "Studies of Fossil Botany" (2nd
ed., 1908), and "The Evolution of Plants" (1910--small popular
manual).
CHAPTER IX. THE ANIMALS OF THE COAL-FOREST
We have next to see that when this period of searching adversity
comes--as it will in the next chapter --the animal world also
offers a luxuriant variety of forms from which the higher types
may be selected. This, it need hardly be said, is just what we
find in the geological record. The fruitful, steaming, rich-laden
earth now offered tens of millions of square miles of pasture to
vegetal feeders; the waters, on the other hand, teemed with
gigantic sharks, huge Cephalopods, large scorpion-like and
lobster-like animals, and shoals of armour-plated, hard-toothed
fishes.
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