The Earth's Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood - wire of information

LIFE 337
If a species becomes extinct on one continent but continues
to flourish on another, is it or is it not senile? What stage is
it in then? We can understand all these events as the results
of piecemeal destructions of animal populations in crust
displacements. We can see in them the process of the creation
of empty environments, preparing the way for a new stage
of explosive evolution. Simpson directly suggests the connec-
tion between these two things:
. . . Opportunity may
come as an inheritance from the dead, the
extinct, who bequeath adaptive zones free from competitors. Jurassic
Virenz for ammonites followed extinction of all but one family, perhaps
all but one genus, of Triassic ammonites; early Tertiary mammalian
Virenz followed mysterious decimation of the Cretaceous
reptiles. . . . (392:73)-
There is another question regarding the extinction of
species that should be answered. Perhaps it will be asked, If
crust displacements killed off the dinosaurs, why did they
not eliminate also the very numerous other reptiles that still
survive? If the last displacement at the close of the Pleistocene
eliminated the mammoth and certain other mammals
did other animals survive? The answer
from America, why
of the mathematical
is, essentially, that it is a question
chances of survival. It is a question of the numbers of the
animals, the geographical extent and variety of their habitats,
their particular individual aptitudes, and the ever-present
factor of sheer accident. It may be true that size militated
against some species, but it may have worked in
others. The very largest animal of all the whale
favor of
still sur-
vives. Elephants compare favorably with all but the very
largest extinct mammals.
7. The Gaps in the Fossil Record
One further point remains for our consideration. A feature
of the fossil record that greatly impressed Darwin was the
curious way in which species appear, full-blown, with no