THE LAST tSTEPiS IN THE GENEALOGY OF MAN.* 



By Dr. Paul Topinard. 

 Trauslatcil by Walteii Hough. 



Our science does not yet know the precise waj^s, direct or indirect, 

 by which the present orders and families have advanced. The poly- 

 phyletic table of the genealogy of mammals that seems best to repre- 

 sent the present state of the inquiry, is far from having the ideal sim- 

 plicity of the mouophyletic tree of Hneckel. The genealogy of the cele- 

 brated professor of Jena is an admirable work, which has been the 

 starting point for numerous studies that have rendered immense service. 

 But he will himself acknowledge it to be a preliminary attempt, wliich 

 he will certainly re-consider someday. 



There are certain truths worthy to be remembered. The lirst is that 

 our existing mammalian orders, families, and genera., are the product of 

 a long evolution of successive transformations, nnd were not in exist- 

 ence before the eocene and miocene periods. At that time also accord- 

 ing to the present teaching of paleontology, the tirst placental nuimmals 

 began to be developed from the marsupials by means of differentiation 

 and multiplication of types which have led to our present forms. 



The second truth is that the progressive passage from the marsupial 

 fauna of that time to the existing fauna did not take place by a single 

 series of species for each order, family, or genus, but in all cases, where 

 science has sufhcient evidence, by multiple series anastonu)sing, inter- 

 crossing, and forming sometimes a perfectly inextricable network. 



Here and there however, science seems already to have advanced; — 

 for instance, in the case of the ungulata, whose genealogical tabic has 

 been tolerably made out; the carnivora, whose luimerous origins hive 

 been shown ; the cheiroptera, and the })iniiipeds or aquatic carnivora. 

 Other orders resemble a veritable cross-roads, as the insectivora and 

 rodentia. 



For some orders we have recorded only the probabilities or provis- 

 ional suppositions in regard to their derivation and development. 



One important branch leading to man, in the doctrine of Ha'ckel, is 

 that of the lemurs which follow the marsupials, the eighteenth stage 

 from the moners in the genealogy of Haickel. 



* Lecture delivered in March, 183d, in tlio Ecole d'Anthropoloj^ie of Paris. (From 

 tlie Eevue d' Anthrojwlofjie, May li3, 1888; 3 ser., vol. iii, pp. 298-33:^.) 



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