The Evolution of Man, vol 2, Ernst Haeckel [online e reader txt] 📗

plete idea of the past development ofman's ancestors within the vertebrate stem by putting together andcomparing the embryological developments of the various groups ofvertebrates. And when we go below the lowest vertebrates and comparetheir embryology with that of their invertebrate relatives, we canfollow the genealogical tree of our animal ancestors much farther,down to the very lowest groups of animals.

In entering the obscure paths of this phylogenetic labyrinth, clingingto the Ariadne-thread of the biogenetic law and guided by the light ofcomparative anatomy, we will first, in accordance with the methods wehave adopted, discover and arrange those fragments from the manifoldembryonic developments of very different animals from which thestem-history of man can be composed. I would call attentionparticularly to the fact that we can employ this method with the sameconfidence and right as the geologist. No geologist has ever hadocular proof that the vast rocks that compose our Carboniferous