Anatomy, Comparative; Embryology, Human; Evolution; Human beings -- Origin
A week later (after the fourth week, on the twenty-eighth to thirtieth
day of development) the human embryo has
reached a length of about one-third of an inch (Fig 179 IV). We can now
clearly distinguish the head with its various parts; inside it the five
primitive cerebral vesicles (fore-brain, middle-brain,
intermediate-brain, hind-brain, and after-brain); under the head the
gill-arches, which divide the gill-clefts; at the sides of the head the
rudiments of the eyes, a couple of pits in the outer skin, with a pair
of corresponding simple vesicles growing out of the lateral wall of the
fore-brain (Figs. 180, 181 _a_). Far behind the eyes, over the last
gill-arches, we see a vesicular rudiment of the auscultory organ. The
rudimentary limbs are now clearly outlined—four simple buds of the
shape of round plates, a pair of fore (_vg_) and a pair of hind legs
(_hg_), the former a little larger than the latter. The large head
bends over the trunk, almost at a right angle. The latter is still
connected in the middle of its ventral side with the embryonic vesicle;
but the embryo has still further severed itself from it, so that it
already hangs out as the yelk-sac. The hind part of the body is also
very much curved, so that the pointed tail-end is directed towards the
head. The head and face-part are sunk entirely on the still open
breast. The bend soon increases so much that the tail almost touches
the forehead (Fig. 179 V.; Fig. 181). We may then distinguish three or
four special curves on the round dorsal surface—namely, a skull-curve
in the region of the second cerebral vesicle, a neck-curve at the
beginning of the spinal cord, and a tail-curve at the fore-end. This
pronounced curve is only shared by man and
the higher classes of vertebrates (the amniotes); it is much slighter,
or not found at all, in the lower vertebrates. At this age (four weeks)
man has a considerable tail, twice as long as his legs. A vertical
longitudinal section through the middle plane of this tail (Fig. 182)
shows that the hinder end of the spinal marrow extends to the point of
the tail, as also does the underlying chorda (_ch_), the terminal
continuation of the vertebral column. Of the latter, the rudiments of
the seven coccygeal (or lowest) vertebræ are visible—thirty-two
indicates the third and thirty-six the seventh of these. Under the
vertebral column we see the hindmost ends of the two large
blood-vessels of the tail, the principal artery (_aorta caudalis_ or
_arteria sacralis media, Ao_), and the principal vein (_vena caudalis_
or _sacralis media_). Underneath is the opening of the anus (_an_) and
the urogenital sinus (_S.ug_). From this anatomic structure of the
human tail it is perfectly clear that it is the rudiment of an
ape-tail, the last hereditary relic of a long hairy tail, which has
been handed down from our tertiary primate ancestors to the present
day.
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