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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: grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of
the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the
same pattern, and should include the same bones, in the same relative
positions? Geoffroy St. Hilaire has insisted strongly on the high
importance of relative connexion in homologous organs: the parts may
change to almost any extent in form and size, and yet they always remain
connected together in the same order. We never find, for instance, the
bones of the arm and forearm, or of the thigh and leg, transposed. Hence
the same names can be given to the homologous bones in widely different
animals. We see the same great law in the construction of the mouths of
insects: what can be more different than the immensely long spiral
On the Origin of Species |
