A century of science in America

by Unknown

By RICHARD SWANN LULL

Introduction.

Unlike its sister science of Invertebrate Paleontology, which has been approached so largely from the viewpoint of stratigraphic geology, that of the vertebrates is essentially a biologic science, having its inception in the masterly work of Cuvier, who is also to be regarded as the founder of comparative anatomy. For long decades, vertebrate paleontology was simply a branch of comparative anatomy or morphology in that it dealt almost exclusively with the form and other peculiarities of fossil bones and teeth, often in a more or less fragmentary condition, very little or no attention being paid to any other system of the creature’s anatomy. Distribution both in space and in time was recorded, but the value of vertebrates in stratigraphy was still to be appreciated and has hardly yet come into its own. It is readily seen, therefore, that the two departments of paleontology did not enlist the same workers or even the same type of investigators, for while the two sciences have much in common and should have more, the vertebratist must, above all else, be a morphologist, with a keen appreciation of form, and a mind capable of retaining endless structural details and of visualizing as a whole what may be known only in part. The initial work of the brilliant Cuvier set so high a standard of preparedness and mental equipment that as a consequence, the number of those engaged in vertebrate research has never been large as compared with the workers in some other branches of science, but the results achieved by the few who have consecrated their research to the fossil vertebrates has been in the main of a high order.

At first, as has been emphasized, this work was largely morphological, dealing both with the individual skeletal elements and later with the bony framework as a whole. Then came the endeavor to clothe the bones with sinews and with flesh—to imagine, in other words, the life-appearance of the ages-departed form—with such of its habits as could be deduced from structure of body, tooth, and limb. Next came the working out of systematic series of vertebrates and their marshalling into species, genera, and larger groups, and much time was thus spent, especially when rapid discovery brought a continual stream of new forms before the systematist, and hence some appreciation of the countless hosts of bygone creatures which peopled the world in the geologic past. This systematic work, however, was based upon the most painstaking morphologic comparisons and so the science was still within the scope of comparative anatomy.

In connection with taxonomic research came increasingly tangible evidence in favor of the law of evolution; investigators turned to the working out of phyletic series showing the actual record of the successive evolutionary changes that the various races had undergone. Coupled with this evolutionary evidence came an increased attention to the sequential occurrence in successive geologic strata, and the stratigraphic distribution of vertebrates became known with greater and greater detail. Then followed the assemblage of faunas, which brought the study of the fossil forms within the realm of historical geology, rather than being the mere phylogeny of a single race, and the value of vertebrate fossils as horizon markers became more and more appreciated by the stratigrapher. They serve to supplement the knowledge gained from the invertebrates, and in this connection are especially valuable in that they often give data concerning continental formations about which invertebrate paleontology is largely silent.

Rise of Vertebrate Paleontology in Europe.

To those who had been nurtured in the belief in a relatively recent creation covering in its entirety a period of but six days, and occurring but four millenniums before the time of Christ, the appearance of the remains of creatures in the rocks, the like of which no man ever saw alive, must have given scope to the wildest imaginings concerning their origin and significance; for many believed that not only had no new forms been added to the world’s fauna since the creation, except possibly by hybridizing, but that none had become extinct save a very few through the agency of human interference. The supposition was, therefore, that such creatures as were thus discovered were still extant in some more remote fastnesses of the world. Thus, our second president, Thomas Jefferson, who wrote one of the first papers on American fossil vertebrates, published in 1798, discussed therein the remains of a huge ground-sloth which has since borne the name Megalonyx jeffersoni. Jefferson, however, described the great claws as pertaining to a huge leonine animal which he firmly believed was yet living among the mountains of Virginia.

Cuvier (1769–1832) has been spoken of as the founder of our science. His opportunity lay in the profusion of bones buried in the gypsum deposits of Montmartre within the environs of the city of Paris. Cuvier’s studies of these remains, done in the light of his very broad anatomical knowledge, enabled him to prepare the first reconstructions of fossil vertebrates ever attempted and to bring before the eyes of his contemporaries a world peopled with forms which were utterly extinct. That these creatures were no longer living, none was a better judge than Cuvier, for his prominence was such that material was sent him from all parts of the world, to which must be added that which he saw in his visits to the various museums of Europe. He felt it safe, therefore, to affirm the unlikelihood of any further discovery of unknown forms among the great mammals of the present fauna of our globe, and few indeed have been the additions since his day. To Cuvier is due not alone the masterly contribution to the sister sciences of comparative anatomy and vertebrate paleontology—the Ossements Fossiles (1812)—but he also announced the presence in continental strata of a series of faunas which showed a gradual organic improvement from the earliest such assemblage to the most modern, an idea of the most fundamental importance and one with which he is rarely credited. He believed in the sudden and complete extinction of faunas, and the facts then known were in accord with this idea, as no common genera nor transitional forms connected the creatures of the Paris gypsum with the mastodons, elephants, and hippopotami which the later strata disclosed. It is not remarkable, therefore, that Cuvier advanced his theory of catastrophism to account for these extinctions. He should not, however, according to Depéret, be credited with the idea of successive re-creations, such as that held by D’Orbigny and others, but of repopulation by immigration from some area which the catastrophe, be it flood or other destructive agency, failed to reach.

Cuvier was followed in Europe by a number of illustrious men, none of whom, however, with the exception of Sir Richard Owen, possessed his breadth of knowledge of comparative anatomy upon which to base their researches among the prehistoric. The more notable of them may be enumerated before going on to a discussion of the American contributions to the science.

They were, first, Louis Agassiz, a pupil of Cuvier and later a resident of America, whose researches on the fossil fishes of Europe are a monumental work, the result of ten years of investigation in all of the larger museums of that continent, and which appeared in 1833–43, while he was yet a young man. The fishes were practically the only fossil vertebrates to come within the scope of his investigations, for his later time was consumed in the study of glaciers and of recent marine zoology. Another student of these most primitive vertebrates who left an enduring monument was Johannes Mϋller. Huxley, Traquair, and Jaekel also did masterly work upon this group, while Smith Woodward of the British Museum is considered the highest living authority upon fossil fishes.