308 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



§ 4. Fossil Links 



All efforts, then, to establish, by means of anatomical and 

 embryological homologies, the lineal descent of man from any 

 known type of monkey or ape have ended in ignominious 

 failure. Comparative anatomy and embryology can, at most, 

 only furnish grounds for extremely vague and indefinite specu- 

 lations regarding the descent of man, but they can never be- 

 come a basis for specific conclusions with respect to the 

 phylogeny of Homo sapiens. Every known form of ape, 

 whether extant or extinct, is, as we have seen, far too special- 

 ized in its adaptation to arboreal life to pass muster as a 

 feasible ancestor. The only conceivable manner in which the 

 human body could be related to simian stock is by way of 

 collateral descent, and the only means of proving such de- 

 scent is to adduce a series of intermediate fossil types con- 

 necting modern men and modern apes with this alleged com- 

 mon ancestor of both. "The ascent (sic) of man as one of 

 the Primates," says Henry Fairfield Osbom, "was parallel 

 with that of the families of apes. Man has a long line of an- 

 cestry of his own, perhaps two million or more years in length. 

 He is not descended from any known form of ape either living 

 or fossil." {The III. London News, Jan. 8, 1921, p. 40.) 



This theory of a hypothetical primate ancestor of man, 

 which is supposed to have inhabited the earth during the 

 earlier part of the Tertiary period, and to have presented a 

 more man-like appearance than any known type of ape, was 

 first propounded by Karl Snell in 1863. It was popularized at 

 the beginning of the present century by Klaatsch, who saw in 

 it a means of escape from the absurdities and perplexities of 

 the theory of lineal descent — "the less," says the latter, "an 

 ape has changed from its original form, just so much the 

 more human it appears." This saying is revamped by Kohl- 

 brugge to read: "Man comes from an original form much 

 more like himself than any existing ape." Kohlbrugge's com- 

 ment is as follows: "The line of descent of man thus receives 



