Abstract
PERMIT an old worker in fossils to protest mildly against the slapdash manner in which writers sometimes hit off great palæontological questions. In your review of Roemer's valuable “Lethæa Palæozoica” it is stated that in regard to Eozoon canadense, he “accepts the verdict of Möbius against its organic origin, and rejects it from the list of palæozoic fossils.” Now as to the acceptance of the “verdict” in question, I have nothing to say, except that the naturalist to whom are assigned the functions of judge and jury in the case very obviously lacks some of the qualifications for that high office, and has not been recognised by those best qualified to understand the case of Eozoon. But why Roemer or your reviewer should “reject Eozoon from the list of palæozoic fossils” I am at a loss to understand. As a writer on palæozoic fossils, Roemer has nothing to do with Eozoon. It belongs to that great series of eozoic or archæan formations which precedes the palæozoic, and which probably represents quite as long a period. Little comparatively is known of the fossils of these oldest rocks; but what we do know of their Eozoon, Archæspherinæ, Spiral arenicolites, and Aspidella, and of their immense deposits of graphitised plants, is sufficient to assure us that the life of the eozoic period was very different from that of the palæozoic; Eozoon, whatever its nature, is one of the most characteristic of these eozoic fossils. It has been recognised through a great vertical thickness of beds, and over so wide areas, that it is now equally characteristic of eozoic rocks in Canada and Brazil, in Bavaria and in Scandinavia. Further, it has obviously been connected with the accumulation of some of the greatest limestones of the eozoic time.
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DAWSON, J. Eozoic and Palæozoic. Nature 22, 382 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/022382a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/022382a0
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