new world means new manners, too. That would apply even on Terra Prime if we’d gone there.”
“I suppose,” he said, and then repressed another giggle.
“I always thought it was a silly kind of joke anyway,” she said primly. “Judging virility by the size of a brood. There isn’t any scientific basis for it. Men are silly. They used to think that virility couldbe measured by the amount of hair on their chests, or how tall they were. There’s nothing wrong with having only three.”
“Carl?” grinned Tod. “The big ol’ swashbuckler?” He let the grin fade. “All right, Ape. I won’t let Carl see me laugh. Or you either. All right?” A peculiar expression crossed his face. “What was that you said? April! Men never had hair on their chests!”
“Yes, they did. Ask Teague.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” He shuddered. “I can’t imagine it unless a man had a tail too. And bony ridges over his eyes.”
“It wasn’t so long ago that they had. The ridges, anyway. Well—I’m glad you didn’t laugh in front of him. You’re nice, Tod.”
“You’re nice too.” He pulled her down beside him and hugged her gently. “Bet you’ll have a dozen.”
“I’ll try.” She kissed him.
When specimen-hunting had gone as far as it could, classification became the settlement’s main enterprise. And gradually, the unique pattern of Viridian life began to emerge.
Viridis had its primitive fish and several of the mollusca, but the fauna was primarily arthropods and reptiles. The interesting thing about each of the three branches was the close relationship between species. It was almost as if evolution took a major step with each generation, instead of bumbling along as on Earth, where certain stages of development are static for thousands, millions of years.
Pterodon
, for example, existed in three varieties, the simplest of which showed a clear similarity to
pteronauchis
, the gliding newt. A simple salamander could be shown to be the common ancestor of both the flapping frog and massive
Parametrodon
, and there were strong similarities between this salamander and the worm which fathered the arthropods.
They lived close to the truth for a long time without being able to see it, for man is conditioned to think of evolution from simple to complex, from ooze to animalcule to mollusc to ganoid; amphibid to monotreme to primate to tinker … losing the significance of the fact that all these co-exist. Was the vertebrate eel of prehistory a
higher
form of life than his simpler descendant? The whale lost hislegs; this men call recidivism, a sort of backsliding in evolution, and treat it as a kind of illegitimacy.
Men are oriented out of simplicity toward the complex, and make of the latter a goal. Nature treats complex matters as expediencies and so is never confused. It is hardly surprising, then, that the Viridis colony took so long to discover their error, for the weight of evidence was in error’s favor. There was indeed an unbroken line from the lowest forms of life to the highest, and to assume that they had a common ancestor was a beautifully consistent hypothesis, of the order of accuracy an archer might display in hitting dead center, from a thousand paces, a bowstring with the nock of his arrow.
The work fell more and more on the younger ones. Teague isolated himself, not by edict, but by habit. It was assumed that he was working along his own lines; and then it became usual to proceed without him, until finally he was virtually a hermit in their midst. He was aging rapidly; perhaps it hurt something in him to be surrounded by so much youth. His six children thrived, and, with Carl’s three, ran naked in the jungle armed only with their sticks and their speed. They were apparently immune to practically everything Viridis might bring against them, even
Crotalidus’s
fangs, which gave them the equivalent of a severe bee-sting (as opposed to what had happened to Moira once, when they had had
“I suppose,” he said, and then repressed another giggle.
“I always thought it was a silly kind of joke anyway,” she said primly. “Judging virility by the size of a brood. There isn’t any scientific basis for it. Men are silly. They used to think that virility couldbe measured by the amount of hair on their chests, or how tall they were. There’s nothing wrong with having only three.”
“Carl?” grinned Tod. “The big ol’ swashbuckler?” He let the grin fade. “All right, Ape. I won’t let Carl see me laugh. Or you either. All right?” A peculiar expression crossed his face. “What was that you said? April! Men never had hair on their chests!”
“Yes, they did. Ask Teague.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” He shuddered. “I can’t imagine it unless a man had a tail too. And bony ridges over his eyes.”
“It wasn’t so long ago that they had. The ridges, anyway. Well—I’m glad you didn’t laugh in front of him. You’re nice, Tod.”
“You’re nice too.” He pulled her down beside him and hugged her gently. “Bet you’ll have a dozen.”
“I’ll try.” She kissed him.
When specimen-hunting had gone as far as it could, classification became the settlement’s main enterprise. And gradually, the unique pattern of Viridian life began to emerge.
Viridis had its primitive fish and several of the mollusca, but the fauna was primarily arthropods and reptiles. The interesting thing about each of the three branches was the close relationship between species. It was almost as if evolution took a major step with each generation, instead of bumbling along as on Earth, where certain stages of development are static for thousands, millions of years.
Pterodon
, for example, existed in three varieties, the simplest of which showed a clear similarity to
pteronauchis
, the gliding newt. A simple salamander could be shown to be the common ancestor of both the flapping frog and massive
Parametrodon
, and there were strong similarities between this salamander and the worm which fathered the arthropods.
They lived close to the truth for a long time without being able to see it, for man is conditioned to think of evolution from simple to complex, from ooze to animalcule to mollusc to ganoid; amphibid to monotreme to primate to tinker … losing the significance of the fact that all these co-exist. Was the vertebrate eel of prehistory a
higher
form of life than his simpler descendant? The whale lost hislegs; this men call recidivism, a sort of backsliding in evolution, and treat it as a kind of illegitimacy.
Men are oriented out of simplicity toward the complex, and make of the latter a goal. Nature treats complex matters as expediencies and so is never confused. It is hardly surprising, then, that the Viridis colony took so long to discover their error, for the weight of evidence was in error’s favor. There was indeed an unbroken line from the lowest forms of life to the highest, and to assume that they had a common ancestor was a beautifully consistent hypothesis, of the order of accuracy an archer might display in hitting dead center, from a thousand paces, a bowstring with the nock of his arrow.
The work fell more and more on the younger ones. Teague isolated himself, not by edict, but by habit. It was assumed that he was working along his own lines; and then it became usual to proceed without him, until finally he was virtually a hermit in their midst. He was aging rapidly; perhaps it hurt something in him to be surrounded by so much youth. His six children thrived, and, with Carl’s three, ran naked in the jungle armed only with their sticks and their speed. They were apparently immune to practically everything Viridis might bring against them, even
Crotalidus’s
fangs, which gave them the equivalent of a severe bee-sting (as opposed to what had happened to Moira once, when they had had
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