Human Evolution, 1863-74
Primates in the Family, 1863
Huxley, Thomas Henry (1825-1895). Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature. London: Williams and Norgate, 1863.
An anatomist like Owen, Huxley was intrigued by the newly discovered gorilla. Unlike Owen, Huxley was partial to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, which had been proposed in 1859. Although Darwin did not suggest in The Origin of Species that humans had evolved from more primitive ancestors, Huxley was perfectly willing to do so. His evidence did not come from stone tools or fossils skulls, but rather from the anatomical similarity of all the anthropoid apes, suggesting a common ancestor. This parade of primates, drawn by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, has become an evolutionary icon, ever since it was first published here.