We
have seen many instances of this-- the seed-bearing ferns and
flower-bearing cycads, for example, found in the last decade--and
will see others. But one of the most remarkable cases of the kind
now claims our attention. The bird was probably evolved in the
late Triassic or early Jurassic. It appears in abundance, divided
into several genera, in the Chalk period. Luckily, two
bird-skeletons have been found in the intermediate period, the
Jurassic, and they are of the intermediate type, between the
reptile and the bird, which the theory of evolution would
suggest. But for the fortunate accident of these two birds being
embedded in an ancient Bavarian mud-layer, which happened to be
opened, for commercial purposes, in the second half of the
nineteenth century, critics of evolution--if there still were any
in the world of science--might be repeating to-day that the
transition from the reptile to the bird was unthinkable in theory
and unproven in fact.
The features of the Archaeopteryx ("primitive bird") have been
described so often, and such excellent pictorial restorations of
its appearance may now be seen, that we may deal with it briefly.
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