Page:The Last link.djvu/31

Rh tral form, from a hypothetical 'Archiprimas.' (2) The Lemures are the older and lower of the natural groups of the Primates; they stand between the oldest Placentalia (Prochoriata) and the true Simiæ. (3) All the Catarrhinæ, or Eastern Simiæ, form one natural monophyletic group. Their hypothetical common ancestor, the Archipithecus, may have descended directly or indirectly from a branch of the Lemures. (4) Man is descended directly from one series of extinct Catarrhine ancestors. The more recent ancestors of this series were tailless anthropoids (similar to the Anthropopithecus), with five sacral vertebræ. The more remote ancestors were tailed Cercopitheci, with three or four sacral vertebræ.

These four theses possess, in my opinion, absolute certainty. They are independent of all future anatomical, embryological, and palæontological discoveries which may possibly throw more light upon the details of our phyletic anthropogenesis.