United States or Kyrgyzstan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
How are the Cretaceous Ichthyosauria, Plesiosauria, or Pterosauria less embryonic, or more differentiated, species than those of the Lias? Or lastly, in what circumstance is the 'Phascolotherium' more embryonic, or of a more generalized type, than the modern Opossum; or a 'Lophiodon', or a 'Paleotherium', than a modern 'Tapirus' or 'Hyrax'?
It is noteworthy that in the hand of the same animal a serially homologous structure should also be developed. And in the Hyrax another myological resemblance appears. It is, however, needless to multiply instances which can easily be produced in large numbers if required.
It was as though a thousand devils in shuddering pain were giving tongue. "Tree hyraxes," Kingozi reassured her. "Those tiny beasts!" she cried incredulously. "Just so. Sweet voices, haven't they? Some of these people must be wearing hyrax robes." And indeed she remembered seeing some of the soft, beautiful karosses.
A silence dwelt there, a different silence from that of the veldt at night; compounded of a few simple elements, such as the faint, incessant drip of hidden waters and occasional loud, hollowly echoing noises such as the bark of a colobus or the scream of a hyrax. There were birds, rare, flashing, brilliant, furtive birds, but they said nothing.
The second of these types is the Hyracotherium. In size it must have been something like the rabbit or the hyrax. It had only three toes on its hind feet, and four on its front feet; though it had also a splint-bone, representing the shrunken and discarded fifth toe, on its fore feet. The teeth, and the bones and joints of the limbs, are also developing in the direction of the horse.
It would not be proper to conclude these sketches without remarking, that there are still a few other odd animals which we have not an opportunity of introducing here. As an instance, we may mention the little Daman, or Hyrax, a native of Africa and Asia Minor, and of which there are two or three distinct species.
If, then, we were to take osteology for our guide, I fear we should often arrive at very erroneous conclusions; and were the little hyrax an extinct animal, and not known to us by actual observation, we should be led by anatomical theorists to ascribe to the timid creature a very different set of manners from what it has got.
How are the Cretaceous Ichthyosauria, Plesiosauria, or Pterosauria less embryonic, or more differentiated, species than those of the Lias? Or lastly, in what circumstance is the 'Phascolotherium' more embryonic, or of a more generalized type, than the modern Opossum; or a 'Lophiodon', or a 'Paleotherium', than a modern 'Tapirus' or 'Hyrax'?
It is worthy of remark that other animals, which, though not rodents, need to possess chisel-edged incisor teeth, have a similar habit. Such is the hippopotamus, and such is the hyrax, the remarkable rock-haunting animal, which in the authorised translation of the Scriptures is called the "coney," and which in the Revised Version is allowed in the margin to retain its Hebrew name, "shaphan."
The elephant has developed along a separate and very distinctive line, as we shall see, and the hyrax is a primitive survivor of the ancestral group. Thus the evolutionist is able to trace a very natural order in the immense variety of our Ungulates. The hyrax has four toes on the front foot and three on the hind foot, and the feet are flat.
Word Of The Day