Play all audios:
ABSTRACT IT is with satisfaction that I note in NATURE of February 3 (p. 331)) that Prof. W. K. Parker finds it more and more impossible “to conceive of birds as arising _direct_ from the
Dinosaurians, or indeed from any other order or group of reptiles.” The sentence, no doubt, suggests an indirect origin of birds from reptiles; but, further on, Prof. Parker explains that if
protovertebrate forms existed it is quite supposable that a metamorphosis may “have taken place of this and that _quasi_-larval form into archaic reptile, ancestral bird, or primitive
mammal.” We must therefore conclude, either that there were two kinds of protovertebrates, namely, piscine and reptilian—or ichthyopsidan and sauropsidan, as Prof. Parker would probably
prefer to call them—fundamentally distinct or preceded by common ancestors, and in neither case themselves entitled to be called protovertebrates, or else that the protovertebrates referred
to were ichthyopsida, that is to say, more simply, allied to the amphibia. I do not object to that letter supposition. I suggested it myself in 1884 (_Journal of Anatomy and Physiology_,
xviii. p. 356), as perhaps Prof. Parker is aware. But if birds are developed from amphibians or pre-amphibians, and if Prof. Huxley is right, as I believe he is, in supposing that the
connection of mammals with amphibians is neither through reptiles nor birds, we come to this: that amphibians or pre-amphibians have furnished the common stem whence reptiles, birds, and
mammals have diverged. In that case there is an end of that group, “Sauropsida,” which the birds are alleged by Prof. Parker to “culminate.” Access through your institution Buy or subscribe
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your institution Subscribe to this journal Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year only $3.90 per issue Learn more Buy this article * Purchase on SpringerLink * Instant access to full article PDF Buy now Prices may be subject to local taxes which are
calculated during checkout ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND
AFFILIATIONS * University, Glasgow, JOHN CLELAND Authors * JOHN CLELAND View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints
and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE CLELAND, J. “Culminating Sauropsida”. _Nature_ 35, 391–392 (1887). https://doi.org/10.1038/035391f0 Download citation * Issue Date: 24
February 1887 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/035391f0 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable
link is not currently available for this article. Copy to clipboard Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative