The History of Creation, Vol. 2 (of 2): Or the Development of the Earth and its Inhabitants by the Action of Natural CausesHaeckel, Ernst
Science
The History of Creation, Vol. 2 (of 2): Or the Development of the Earth and its Inhabitants by the Action of Natural Causes
Haeckel, Ernst
Evolution; Heredity; Human beings -- Origin
Of all still living Apes the large tail-less, narrow-nosed Apes, namely,
the Orang and Gibbon in Asia, the Gorilla and Chimpanzee in Africa, are
most nearly akin to Man. It is probable that these Man-like Apes, or
Anthropoides, originated during the Mid-tertiary period, namely, in the
Miocene period. They developed out of the Tailed Catarrhini of the
preceding stage—with which they essentially agree—by the loss of the
tail, the partial loss of the hairy covering and by the excessive
development of that portion of the brain just above the facial portion
of the skull. There do not exist direct human ancestors among the
Anthropoides of the present day, but they certainly existed among the
unknown extinct Human Apes of the Miocene period. The _certain proof_ of
their former existence is furnished by the comparative anatomy of
Man-like Apes and of Man.
TWENTY-FIRST STAGE: +Ape-like Men (Pithecanthropi)+.
Although the preceding ancestral stage is already so nearly akin to
genuine Men that we scarcely require to assume an intermediate
connecting stage, still we can look upon the speechless Primæval Men
(Alali) as this intermediate link. These Ape-like men, or
Pithecanthropi, very probably existed towards the end of the Tertiary
period. They originated out of the Man-like Apes, or Anthropoides, by
becoming completely habituated to an upright walk, and by the
corresponding stronger differentiation of both pairs of legs. The fore
hand of the Anthropoides became the human hand, their hinder hand became
a foot for walking. Although these Ape-like Men must not merely by the
external formation of their bodies, but also by their internal mental
development, have been much more akin to real Men than the Man-like Apes
could have been, yet they did not possess the real and chief
characteristic of man, namely, the articulate human language of words,
the corresponding development of a higher consciousness, and the
formation of ideas. The _certain proof_ that such Primæval Men without
the power of speech, or Ape-like Men, must have preceded men possessing
speech, is the result arrived at by an inquiring mind from comparative
philology (from the “comparative anatomy” of language), and especially
from the history of the development of language in every child (“glottal
ontogenesis”) as well as in every nation (“glottal phylogenesis”).
TWENTY-SECOND STAGE: +Men (Homines)+.
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