OUR ANCIENT RELATIVES 



generis, just as the face of any other species of 

 mammal is unique in its specific attributes. But 

 there are thousands of good scientific reasons for 

 accepting as a fact the evolution of man from 

 lower mammals, there is a convincing chain of 

 known forms in the long series from fish to man; 

 and even in civilized man the human face is most 

 obviously related rather closely to that of the 

 anthropoids; therefore only the most confirmed 

 mystic by preference will insist that the evolution 

 of the human face is a "mystery." It is true that 

 every event of the kind abounds in mystery, since 

 no matter how fully we can describe by what 

 stages it happens, we uncover infinitely ramifying 

 problems whenever we attempt to isolate the 

 causal factors. 



Undoubtedly when primitive man left the forests 

 and came out on the plains to live by hunting there 

 was a change in food, a change from a frugivorous 

 to at least a partly carnivorous diet, there was a 

 change of locomotion from erect tree-climbing 

 (brachiation) to bipedal running on the plains; 

 speech arose and the brain grew so large that it 

 grew faster than the face; the period of individual 



growth and development was greatly extended; all 



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