No remains have yet been found of Man’s immediate precursor, the primitive and more ape-like animal from which he is supposed to be descended. Neither have we yet found any certain traces of the postulated animal (often popularly termed the Missing Link) from which both Man and the anthropoid apes are descended.
Several forms of fossil apes have been found, however, which show a kinship to Man in some particulars and help to bridge over this gap: notably, Propliopithecus, from the Lower Oligocene of Egypt; Sivapilhecus, from Miocene India; Dryopithecus, from Miocene France; and Australopithecus (the “Taungs skull”), from the Pliocene or Pleistocene of South Africa.