Palæontology and Archaic Fishes

Abstract

IT is now a good many years since I first decided to devote myself to the study of vertebrate morphology. I was attracted to this study through feeling in the old days at Cambridge that the position of comparative neglect into which this science had fallen was the fault, not of the subject itself, but rather of that band of enthusiasts who, carried away by the inspiration of Darwin, and setting to work at the building of the new morphology, took in their haste but little heed that the foundations upon which they built were adequate either in extent or in sound workmanship. As regards the former, an important gap in the foundations was glaringly visible in the region occupied by these two exceedingly archaic subdivisions of the Vertebrata—the Crossopterygii and the Dipnoi. In particular, nothing whatever was known regarding the early developmental stages of any crossopterygian or of either of the two lung-fish which seemed nearest to the evolutionary stem of the terrestrial vertebrates. It was the recognition of the importance of this gap in the foundations of vertebrate morphology that, above all, influenced me in taking the decision to do what I could towards making the gap less extensive. Seeing that so much of my research work has been concerned with the two groups I have indicated, I may perhaps be regarded, as justified in having a special interest in them and their relation to the general problems of vertebrate morphology.