X76 TEE DESCENT OF MAN. 



up; but some of the species or incipient genera would 

 ave already begun to indicate by their diverging characters 

 the future distinctive marks of the Catarrhine and 

 Platyrrhine divisions. Hence the members of this supposed 

 ancient group would not have been so uniform in their 

 dentition, or in the structure of their nostrils, as are the 

 existing Catarrhine monkeys in one way and the Platyrrhines 

 in another way, but would have resembled in this respect 

 the allied Lemuridse, which differ greatly from each other 

 in the form of their muzzles,* and to an extraordinary 

 degree in their dentition. 



The Catarrhine and Platyrrhine monkeys agree in a. multi- 

 tude of characters, as is shown by their unquestionably 

 belonging to one and the same order. 'Ihe many charac- 

 ters which they possess in common can hardly have been 

 independently acquired by so many distinct species; so that 

 these characters must have been inherited. But a naturalist 

 would undoubtedly have ranked as an ape or a monkey, an 

 ancient form which possessed many characters common to 

 the Catarrhine and Platyrrhine monkeys, other characters in 

 an intermediate condition, and some few, perhaps, distinct 

 from those now found in either group. And as man from 

 a genealogical point of view belongs to the Catarrhine or Old 

 World stock, we must conclude, however much the conclu- 

 sion may revolt our pride, that our early progenitors would 

 have been properly thus designated, f But we must not 

 fall into the error of supposing that the early progenitor of 

 the whole Simian stock, including man, was identical 

 with, or even closely resembled, any existing ape or monkey. 



On the Birthplace and Antiquity of Man. We are 

 naturally led to inquire, where was the birthplace of man 

 at that stage of descent when our progenitors diverged from 

 the Catarrhine stock? The fact that they belonged to this 

 stock clearly shows that they inhabitated the Old World; 

 but not Australia nor any oceanic island, as we may infer 



* Messrs. Murie and Mivart on the Lemuroidea, " Transact. Zoolog. 

 Soc.," vol. vii, 1869, p. 5. 



fHSckel has come to this same conclusion. See "Ueber die 

 Entstehung des Menschengeschlechts," in Virchow's " Sammlung. 

 gemein. wissen. Vortrage," 1868, s. 61. Also his " Naturliche Scliop- 

 fungsgeschichte." 1868, in which he gives in detail his views on the 

 genealogy of inan. 



