154 PRIMARY FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 



upper molars than in an}^ race that he has recorded. 

 He confirms my conclusion as to the high percentage 

 of quadritubercular superior molars in the Malays, 

 Polynesians, and Melanesians. 



The relation of this fact to phylogeny is to confirm 

 Haeckel's hypothesis of the lemurine ancestry of man. 

 I have advanced the further hypothesis that the An- 

 thropomorpha (which include man and the anthropoid 

 apes) have been derived directly from the lemurs, with- 

 out passing through the monkeys proper. This close 

 association of man with the apes, is based on various 

 considerations. One of them is that the skeleton of 

 the anthropoid apes more nearly resembles that of 

 man in the most important respects than it does that 

 of the monkeys. This is especially true of the verte- 

 bral column, where the anapophyses are wanting in 

 the Anthropomorpha (insignificant rudiments remain- 

 ing on one or two vertebrae, as pointed out by Mivart), 

 while they are well developed in the monkeys and 

 lemurs. The molar teeth of the apes and man resem- 

 ble each other more than either do those of the mon- 

 keys, since they lack the crests which connect the 

 cusps, which are general in the latter. 



The frequent presence of the tritubercular molar in 

 man suggests the superior claim of the lemurs over the 

 monkeys to the position of ancestor. Another signifi- 

 cant fact pointing in the same direction is the existence 

 of large-brained lemurs with a very anthropoid denti- 

 tion (Anaptomorphidae) in our Eocene beds, which have 

 the dental formula of man and the Old World monkeys 

 and apes. This resemblance is very remarkable, much 

 exceeding that lately observed by Ameghino in certain 

 extinct forms of monkeys in Patagonia, which appear 

 to be ancestors of the existing South American mon- 



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