Identifier: evolutionofmanpo021879haec (find matches)
Title: The evolution of man : a popular exposition of the principal points of human ontogeny and phylogeny
Year: 1879 (1870s)
Authors: Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August, 1834-1919
Subjects: Human evolution Embryology, Human Anatomy, Comparative
Publisher: New York : Appleton
Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MBLWHOI Library

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hed-rats. Others(Macrotarsi) are very near akin to the Insect-eaters, andyet others (Cheiromys) to the Gnawers (Rodentia). Onegenus (Galeopiihccus) forms a direct transition to the Bats.Finally, some of the Semi-apes (Bvachytarsi) approach verynear to true Apes. Among the latter are some tail-less forms(e.g., the Lori, Stenops, Fig. 199). From these highly in-teresting and important relations of the Semi-apes to thevarious Discoplacental orders, we may fairly infer thatof the extant representatives of this group, they are thenearest to the common primitive parent-form. Among thedirect common ancestors of Apes and Men, there must havebeen some Deciduata which we should class among theSemi-apes, were we to see them alive. We may thereforeconsider this order as a special stage, following the PouchedAnimals, as the eighteenth stage in the human pedigree. 164 THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. Probably our ancestors among the Semi-apes closely re-sembled the extant Brachytarsi or Lemurs (Lemur, Lichan-
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Fig. 199.—The Slender Lori of Ceylon (Stenops gracilis). otus, Stenojis), and, like these, led a quiet life, climbing ontrees. The extant Semi-apes are mostly nocturnal animalsof gentle and melancholy disposition, subsisting on fruits. APES. 165 The Semi-apes are immediately followed by the trueApes (Simice), as the nineteenth stage in the human pedi-gree. It has long been beyond doubt that of all animalsthe Apes are in all respects the most nearly allied to Man.Just as, on the one side, the lowest Apes approach very nearto the Semi-apes, so, on the other side, do the highest Apesmost closely resemble Man. By carefully studying the Com-parative Anatomy of Apes and Man, it is possible to trace agradual, uninterrupted advance in the Ape-organization up tothe purely human structure; and on impartially testing thisApe-question, which has lately been agitated with suchpassionate interest, we shall infallibly have to acknowledgethe important fact, which was first explicitly laid down byHu

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