Charles Darwin (1809–1882)
Diagram of primate descent
21 April 1868

Darwin’s theory of natural selection suggested that all life could have descended from a single common ancestor. Most controversially, it suggested that humans shared a common ancestry with other animals. Humans became just one branch of the family tree of primates. Darwin sketched out this diagram in 1868, but did not make his views on human descent explicit until he published Descent of man in 1871.

MS DAR 80: B91