Anatomy, Comparative; Embryology, Human; Evolution; Human beings -- Origin
The whole structure of this huge anthropoid ape is not merely very
similar to that of man, but it is substantially the same. "The same
200 bones, arranged in the same way, form our internal skeleton; the
same 300 muscles effect our movements; the same hair covers our skin;
the same groups of ganglionic cells compose the ingenious mechanism of
our brain; the same four-chambered heart is the central pump of our
circulation." The really existing differences in the shape and size of
the various parts are explained by differences in their growth, due to
adaptation to different habits of life and unequal use of the various
organs. This of itself proves morphologically the descent of man from
the ape. We will return to the point in Chapter 2.23. But I wanted to
point already to this important solution of "the question of
questions," because that agreement in the formation of the embryonic
membranes and in foetal circulation which I have described affords a
particularly weighty proof of it. It is the more instructive as even
cenogenetic structures may in certain circumstances have a high
phylogenetic value. In conjunction with the other facts, it affords a
striking confirmation of our biogenetic law.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Evolution of Man, V.1., by Ernst Haeckel
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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