The Last Link: Our Present Knowledge of the Descent of ManHaeckel, Ernst
Science
The Last Link: Our Present Knowledge of the Descent of Man
Haeckel, Ernst
Human beings -- Origin
19. Stage of _Metatheria_, or _Marsupialia_, are direct descendants of
Prototheria; but they show higher development by the reduction of the
coracoid bones and the interclavicle. The original cloaca is divided
into a rectal chamber and a uro-genital sinus, completely separated,
at least in the males; they are viviparous; the young are received
into a permanent marsupium, in the walls of which are formed typical
milk glands and nipples, but the embryo is still devoid of a placenta,
although some recent marsupials show indications of such an organ. The
corpus callosum in the brain is still very weak.
Most of the marsupials are extinct. They occur from the Upper Trias
onwards, and had in the Jurassic epoch attained a wide distribution
both in Europe and in America. Since the Tertiary epoch they have
been restricted to America and to the Australian region, and are now
represented by about 150 species.
20. Stage of _Prochoriata_, or early _Placentalia_: a further
development of the Metatheria by the development of a placenta, loss
of the marsupium and the marsupial bones, complete division by the
perineum of the anal and uro-genital chambers, stronger development of
the corpus callosum, or chief commissure of the two hemispheres of the
brain.
Placentalia must have come into existence during the Cretaceous
epoch. Up to that time all the Mammalia seem to have belonged to
either Prototheria or to Metatheria; but in the early Eocene we can
distinguish the main groups of Placentalia--namely, (1) Trogontia, now
represented by the rodents; (2) Edentata, or sloths, armadilloes, etc.;
(3) Carnassia, or Insectivora and Carnivora; (4) Chiroptera, or bats;
(5) Cetomorpha, or whales and dugongs; (6) Ungulata; (7) Primates.
Of these groups, the first and second, third and fourth, fifth and
sixth, can perhaps, to judge from palæontological evidence, be combined
into three greater groups, as indicated by the fossil Esthonychida,
Ictopsida, and Condylarthra, in addition to the ancestral Primates,
or Lemuravida, as the fourth large branch of the ancestral-tree where
this has reached the placental level. Among none of the first three
branches can we look for the ancestors of the Primates. The Lemuravida,
therefore, represent a branch equivalent to the three other branches.
21. Stage of _Lemures_, or _Prosimiæ_, comprising the older members of
the Primates, consequently approaching most nearly to the Lemuravida.
The limbs are modified into pentadactyle hands and feet of the arboreal
type, and are protected by nails. The dentition is of the frugivorous
or omnivorous type, with an originally complete series of teeth, with
milk teeth and with permanent. The orbit is surrounded by a complete
bony ring, posteriorly by a fronto-jugal arch, but still widely
communicating with the temporal fossa. The placenta is diffuse and
non-deciduous.
ANCESTRAL TREE OF THE MAMMALIA.
_'Systematische Phylogenie,' § 386._
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