Download Photo

These skeletons of the five living genera of anthropomorpha are reduced to a common size, in order to show better the relative proportions of the various parts. The human skeleton is 1/20 th natural size, the gorilla 1/18 th, the chimpanzee 1/7 th, the orang 1/7 th, the gibbon 1/9 th. Young specimens of the chimpanzee and orang have been selected, because they approach nearer to man than the adult. No one of the living anthropoid apes is nearest to man in all respects; this cannot be said of either of the African (gorilla and chimpanzee) or the Asiatic (orang and gibbon). This anatomic fact is explained phylogenetically on the ground that none of them are direct ancestors of man; they represent divergent branches of the stem, of which man is the crown. However, the small gibbon is nearest related to the hypothetical common ancestor of all the anthropomorpha to which we give the name of Prothylobates.

Author

Last Words on Evolution
A Popular Retrospect and Summary
Author: Ernst Haeckel
Published in 1906
Available from gutenberg.org

Posted on

Saturday 10 June 2023

Dimensions

2400*1506

Tags

Albums

• Natural History / Mammals

Visits

962

Downloads

25