ABSTRACT
What is a ‘living fossil’? The term is not an insult, it merely shows surprise that such an anachronism in flesh and blood should still survive; and its exact meaning is relevant here since we shall often be concerned with the possible survival of animals universally thought to be extinct. For it is a fact that some animals still unknown to zoologists seem to be well known to the palaeontologist, though only in a fossil state. Yet many zoologists and most palaeontologists steadfastly refuse to admit that they can possibly survive, and their reason for doing so is all the more obscure since the world teems with ‘living fossils.’ What then is a ‘living fossil’?
