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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: by their intermediate position in the chain of descent. The grand fact
that all extinct organic beings belong to the same system with recent
beings, falling either into the same or into intermediate groups, follows
from the living and the extinct being the offspring of common parents. As
the groups which have descended from an ancient progenitor have generally
diverged in character, the progenitor with its early descendants will often
be intermediate in character in comparison with its later descendants; and
thus we can see why the more ancient a fossil is, the oftener it stands in
some degree intermediate between existing and allied groups. Recent forms
are generally looked at as being, in some vague sense, higher than ancient
and extinct forms; and they are in so far higher as the later and more
On the Origin of Species |
