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From Human Origins: The Big Questions
Huxley, Man’s Place in Nature
This famous image by biologist T. H. Huxley illustrates the author’s argument that humans were not that different from animals. By using anatomical similarities between apes and humans to argue for a common ancestry, Huxley took up a question that Darwin had avoided in The Origin of Species—human origins—and he came up with a definitive answer: humans were animals.
Since its original publication, this image has been appropriated and used in a multitude of versions. It has become an icon for evolution, even though it incorrectly implies a direct lineage and a progressive march from present-day primates to humans.
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895). Evidence as to Man’s Place in Nature. London: Williams and Norgate, 1863.
