A great snippet from Origin of Species that I just read
Regarding the fossiliferous (a word i just fell in love with) remains found in the earth’s surface;
“…I look at the geological record as a history of the world imperfectly kept, and written in a changing dialect; of this history we possess the last volume alone, relating only to two or three countries. Of this volume, only here and there a short chapter has been preserved; and of each page, only here and there a few lines. Each word of the slowly-changing language, more or less different in successive chapters, may represent the forms of life, which are entombed in our consecutive formations, and which falsely appear to have been abruptly introduced."
February 23rd, 2014