The Last Link: Our Present Knowledge of the Descent of Man

"The Last Link: Our Present Knowledge of the Descent of Man" by Ernst Haeckel is a late 19th-century science book that explores the idea of human evolution. It dives into the discussion of how people evolved from earlier primate ancestors, looking at old arguments and scientific discoveries. The book starts by talking about how far zoology has come and what that means for understanding where humans come from, mentioning important scientists like Lamarck and Darwin. Haeckel explains the basic ideas of transformism, which says living things change over long periods through nature. He points out that figuring out where humans come from is the most important question, and that we need to study the bodies of different animals and old fossils to learn about our family tree, setting up the argument for how humans came from simpler animals.