And though it harmonizes well with "Natural Selection," it is equally consistent with the rapid and sudden development of new specific forms of life.

Indeed, Professor Huxley, with a laudable caution and moderation too little observed by some Teutonic Darwinians, guarded himself carefully from any imputation of asserting dogmatically the theory of "Natural Selection," while upholding fully the doctrine of evolution.
But, after all, it is by no means certain, though very probable, that the Connecticut footsteps were made by very ornithic reptiles, or extremely sauroid birds.

And it must not be forgotten that a completely carinate[128] bird (the Archeopteryx) existed at a time, when, as yet, we have no evidence of some of the Dinosauria having come into being.

Moreover, if the remarkable and minute similarity of the coracoid of a pterodactyle to that of a bird be merely the result of function and no sign of genetic affinity, it is not inconceivable that pelvic and leg resemblances of Dinosauria to birds may be functional likewise, though such an explanation is, of {132} course, by no means necessary to support the view maintained in this book.
[Illustration: THE ARCHEOPTERYX (OF THE OOLITE STRATA).] [Illustration: SKELETON OF AN ICHTHYOSAURUS.] But the number of forms represented by many individuals, yet by _no transitional ones_, is so great that only two or three can be selected as examples.

Thus those remarkable fossil reptiles, the Ichthyosauria and Plesiosauria, extended, through the secondary period, probably over the greater part of the globe.