The Evolution of Man, V.2 by Ernst Haeckel (comprehension books .TXT) 📕

The further development of the Ascidia in detail has no particular interest for us, and we will not go into it. The chief result that we obtain from its embryology is the complete agreement with that of the Amphioxus in the earliest and most important embryonic stages. They do not begin to diverge until after the medullary tube and alimentary canal, and the axial rod with the muscles between the two, have been formed. The Amphioxus continues to advance, and resembles the embryonic forms of the higher vertebrates; the Ascidia degenerates more and more, and at last, in its adult condition, has the appearance of a very imperfect invertebrate.

If we now look back on all the remarkable features we have encountered in the structure and the embryonic development of the Amphioxus and the Ascidia, and compare them with the features of man's embryonic development which we have previously studied, it will be clear that I have not exaggerated the importance of these very interesting animals. It is evident that the Amphioxus from the vertebrate side and the Ascidia from the invertebrate form the bridge by which we can span the deep gulf that separates the two great divisions of the animal kingdom. The radical agreement of the lancelet and the sea-squirt in the first and most important stages of development shows something more than their close anatomic affinity and their proximity in classification; it shows also their real blood-relationship and their common origin from one and the same stem-form. In this way, it throws considerable light on the oldest roots of man's genealogical tree.

Our comparative investigation of the anatomy and ontogeny of the Amphioxus and Ascidia has given us invaluable assistance. We have, in the first place, bridged the wide gulf that has existed up to the present between the Vertebrates and Invertebrates; and, in the second place, we have discovered in the embryology of the Amphioxus a number of ancient evolutionary stages that have long since disappeared from human embryology, and have been lost, in virtue of the law of curtailed heredity. The chief of these stages are the spherical blastula (in its simplest primary form), and the succeeding archigastrula, the pure, original form of the gastrula which the Amphioxus has preserved to this day, and which we find in the same form in a number of Invertebrates of various classes. Not less important are the later embryonic forms of the coelomula, the chordula, etc.

Thus the embryology of the Amphioxus and the Ascidia has so much increased our knowledge of man's stem-history that, although our empirical information is still very incomplete, there is now no defect of any great consequence in it. We may now, therefore, approach our proper task, and reconstruct the phylogeny of man in its chief lines with the aid of this evidence of comparative anatomy and ontogeny. In this the reader will soon see the immense importance of the direct application of the biogenetic law. But before we enter upon the work it will be useful to make a few general observations that are necessary to understand the processes aright.

We must say a few words with regard to the period in which the human race was evolved from the animal kingdom. The first thought that occurs to one in this connection is the vast difference between the duration of man's ontogeny and phylogeny. The individual man needs only nine months for his complete development, from the fecundation of the ovum to the moment when he leaves the maternal womb. The human embryo runs its whole course in the brief space of forty weeks (as a rule, 280 days). In many other mammals the time of the embryonic development is much the same as in man--for instance, in the cow. In the horse and ass it takes a little longer, forty-three to forty-five weeks; in the camel, thirteen months. In the largest mammals, the embryo needs a much longer period for its development in the womb--a year and a half in the rhinoceros, and ninety weeks in the elephant. In these cases pregnancy lasts twice as long as in the case of man, or one and three-quarter years. In the smaller mammals the embryonic period is much shorter. The smallest mammals, the dwarf-mice, develop in three weeks; hares in four weeks, rats and marmots in five weeks, the dog in nine, the pig in seventeen, the sheep in twenty-one and the goat in thirty-six. Birds develop still more quickly. The chick only needs, in normal circumstances, three weeks for its full development. The duck needs twenty-five days, the turkey twenty-seven, the peacock thirty-one, the swan forty-two, and the cassowary sixty-five. The smallest bird, the humming-bird, leaves the egg after twelve days. Hence the duration of individual development within the foetal membranes is, in the mammals and birds, clearly related to the absolute size of the body of the animal in question. But this is not the only determining feature. There are a number of other circumstances that have an influence on the period of embryonic development. In the Amphioxus the earliest and most important embryonic processes take place so rapidly that the blastula is formed in four hours, the gastrula in six, and the typical vertebrate form in twenty-four.

In every case the duration of ontogeny shrinks into insignificance when we compare it with the enormous period that has been necessary for phylogeny, or the gradual development of the ancestral series. This period is not measured by years or centuries, but by thousands and millions of years. Many millions of years had to pass before the most advanced vertebrate, man, was evolved, step by step, from his ancient unicellular ancestors. The opponents of evolution, who declare that this gradual development of the human form from lower animal forms, and ultimately from a unicellular organism, is an incredible miracle, forget that the same miracle takes place within the space of mine months in the embryonic development of every human being. Each of us has, in the forty weeks--properly speaking, in the first four weeks--of his development in the womb, passed through the same series of transformations that our animal ancestors underwent in the course of millions of years.

It is impossible to determine even approximately, in hundreds or even thousands of years, the real and absolute duration of the phylogenetic period. But for some time now we have, through the research of geologists, been in a position to assign the relative length of the various sections of the organic history of the earth. The immediate data for determining this relative length of the geological periods are found in the thickness of the sedimentary strata--the strata that have been formed at the bottom of the sea or in fresh water from the mud or slime deposited there. These successive layers of limestone, sandstone, slate, marl, etc., which make up the greater part of the rocks, and are often several thousand feet thick, give us a standard for computing the relative length of the various periods.

To make the point quite clear, I must say a word about the evolution of the earth in general, and point out briefly the chief features of the story. In the first place, we encounter the principle that on our planet organic life began to exist at a definite period. That statement is no longer disputed by any competent geologist or biologist. The organic history of the earth could not commence until it was possible for water to settle on our planet in fluid condition. Every organism, without exception, needs fluid water as a condition of existence, and contains a considerable quantity of it. Our own body, when fully formed, contains sixty to seventy per cent of water in its tissues, and only thirty to forty per cent of solid matter. There is even more water in the body of the child, and still more in the embryo. In the earlier stages of development the human foetus contains more than ninety per cent of water, and not ten per cent of solids. In the lower marine animals, especially certain medusae, the body consists to the extent of more than ninety-nine per cent of sea-water, and has not one per cent of solid matter. No organism can exist or discharge its functions without water. No water, no life!

But fluid water, on which the existence of life primarily depends, could not exist on our planet until the temperature of the surface of the incandescent sphere had sunk to a certain point. Up to that time it remained in the form of steam. But as soon as the first fluid water could be condensed from the envelope of steam, it began its geological action, and has continued down to the present day to modify the solid crust of the earth. The final outcome of this incessant action of the water--wearing down and dissolving the rocks in the form of rain, hail, snow, and ice, as running stream or boiling surge--is the formation of mud. As Huxley says in his admirable Lectures on the Causes of Phenomena in Organic Nature, the chief document as to the past history of our earth is mud; the question of the history of past ages resolves itself into a question about the formation of mud.

As I have said, it is possible to form an approximate idea of the relative age of the various strata by comparing them at different parts of the earth's surface. Geologists have long been agreed that there is a definite historical succession of the different strata. The various superimposed layers correspond to successive periods in the organic history of the earth, in which they were deposited in the form of mud at the bottom of the sea. The mud was gradually converted into stone. This was lifted out of the water owing to variations in the earth's surface, and formed the mountains. As a rule, four or five great divisions are distinguished in the organic history of the earth, corresponding to the larger and smaller groups of the sedimentary strata. The larger periods are then sub-divided into a series of smaller ones, which usually number from twelve to fifteen. The comparative thickness of the groups of strata enables us to make an approximate calculation of the relative length of these various periods of time. We cannot say, it is true, "In a century a stratum of a certain thickness (about two feet) is formed on the average; therefore, a layer 1000 feet thick must be 500,000 years old." Different strata of the same thickness may need very different periods for their formation. But from the thickness or size of the stratum we can draw some conclusion as to the RELATIVE length of the period.

The first and oldest of the four or five chief divisions of the organic history of the earth is called the primordial, archaic, or archeozoic period. If we compute the total average thickness of the sedimentary strata at about 130,000 feet, this first period comprises 70,000 feet, or the greater part of the whole. For this and other reasons we may at once conclude that the corresponding primordial or