Paper, 'On the possibly dual origin of the mammalia' by St George Jackson Mivart

Description

Mivart writes: 'The recent discovery by Mr Edward B Poulton of non-functional teeth hidden beneath the bony plates of the jaws of the young Ornithorhynchus [see PP/11/22] is not only most interesting in itself, but taken in connexion with another recent discovery as to the anatomy of that animal, exceedingly suggestive. It is, of course, easy to assign too great a value to the forms of teeth, and everyone knows how Cuvier was thus led to associate the marsupial Carnivora with the placental Carnivores. There is an evident temptation also to exaggerate the significance of dental structure, both on account of the obvious nature of such characters and also because they are so exceptionally well preserved in fossil remains.'

Annotations in pencil and ink.

Subject: Zoology

Received 14 February 1888. Read 16 February 1888.

A version of this paper was published in volume 43 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'On the possibly dual origin of the mammalia'.

Reference number

PP/11/26

Earliest possible date

1888

Physical description

Ink and graphite pencil on paper

Page extent

17 pages

Format

Manuscript