March Of Progress
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''The March of Progress'', originally titled ''The Road to Homo Sapiens'', is an illustration that presents 25 million years of
human evolution ''Homo sapiens'' is a distinct species of the hominid family of primates, which also includes all the great apes. Over their evolutionary history, humans gradually developed traits such as Human skeletal changes due to bipedalism, bipedalism, de ...
. It was created for the ''Early Man'' volume of the '' Life Nature Library'', published in 1965, and drawn by the artist Rudolph Zallinger. It has been widely parodied and imitated to create images of progress of other kinds.


Illustration


Context

The illustration is part of a section of text and images commissioned by
Time-Life Books Time Life, Inc. (also habitually represented with a hyphen as Time-Life, Inc., even by the company itself) was an American multi-media conglomerate company formerly known as a prolific production/publishing company and direct marketeer seller ...
for the ''Early Man'' volume (1965) of the '' Life Nature Library'', by F. Clark Howell.Howell, F. Clark and the Editors of Time-Life Books (1965), ''Early Man'',
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
:
TIME-LIFE Books Time Life, Inc. (also habitually represented with a hyphen as Time-Life, Inc., even by the company itself) was an American multi-media conglomerate company formerly known as a prolific production/publishing company and direct marketeer seller ...
, pp. 41–45.
The illustration is a foldout entitled "The Road to Homo Sapiens". It shows a sequence of figures, drawn by natural history painter and muralist Rudolph Zallinger (1919–1995). The 15 human evolutionary forebears are lined up as if they were marching in a parade from left to right. The first two sentences of the caption read "What were the stages of man's long march from apelike ancestors to ''sapiens''? Beginning at right and progressing across four more pages are milestones of primate and human evolution as scientists know them today, pieced together from the fragmentary fossil evidence."


Sequence of species

The 15 primate figures in Zallinger's image, from left to right, are listed below. The datings follow the original graphic and may no longer reflect current scientific opinion. * ''
Pliopithecus ''Pliopithecus'' (meaning "more ape") is a genus of extinct primates of the Miocene. It was discovered in 1837 by Édouard Lartet (1801–1871) in France, with fossils subsequently discovered in Switzerland, Slovakia and Spain. ''Pliopithecus' ...
'', 22–12 million year old "ancestor of the
gibbon Gibbons () are apes in the family Hylobatidae (). The family historically contained one genus, but now is split into four extant genera and 20 species. Gibbons live in subtropical and tropical forests from eastern Bangladesh and Northeast Indi ...
line" * ''
Proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a Roman consul, consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority. In the Roman Republic, military ...
'', 21–9 million year old primate which may or may not have qualified as an ape * ''
Dryopithecus ''Dryopithecus'' is a genus of extinct great apes from the middle–late Miocene boundary of Europe 12.5 to 11.1 million years ago (mya). Since its discovery in 1856, the genus has been subject to taxonomic turmoil, with numerous new species b ...
'', 15–8 million year old fossil ape, the first such found (1856) and probable ancestor of modern apes * '' Oreopithecus'', 15–8 million years old * ''Ramapithecus'', 13–8 million year old ape and possible ancestor of modern
orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ...
s (now considered a female '' Sivapithecus'') * ''
Australopithecus ''Australopithecus'' (, ; or (, ) is a genus of early hominins that existed in Africa during the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. The genera ''Homo'' (which includes modern humans), ''Paranthropus'', and ''Kenyanthropus'' evolved from some ''Aus ...
'', 2–3 million years old; then considered the earliest "certain hominid" * ''
Paranthropus ''Paranthropus'' is a genus of extinct hominin which contains two widely accepted species: ''Paranthropus robustus, P. robustus'' and ''P. boisei''. However, the validity of ''Paranthropus'' is contested, and it is sometimes considered to be sy ...
'', 1.8–0.8 million years old * Advanced ''Australopithecus'' '' Homohabilis'', 1.8–0.7 million year old * ''
Homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' ( ) is an extinction, extinct species of Homo, archaic human from the Pleistocene, spanning nearly 2 million years. It is the first human species to evolve a humanlike body plan and human gait, gait, to early expansions of h ...
'', 700,000–400,000 years old, then the earliest known member of the genus ''Homo'' * Early ''Homo sapiens'', 300,000–200,000 years old; from
Swanscombe Swanscombe /ˈswɔnzkəm/ is a town in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is 4.4 miles west of Gravesend and 4.8 miles east of Dartford. History Prehistory Bone fragments and to ...
, Steinheim and Montmaurin, then considered probably the earliest ''H. sapiens'' *
Solo Man Solo Man (''Homo erectus soloensis'') is a subspecies of '' H. erectus'' that lived along the Solo River in Java, Indonesia, about 117,000 to 108,000 years ago in the Late Pleistocene. This population is the last known record of the species. I ...
, 100,000–50,000 years old; described as an extinct Asian "race" of ''H. sapiens'' (now considered a sub-species of ''H. erectus'') * Rhodesian Man, 50,000–30,000 years old; described as an extinct African "race" of ''H. sapiens'' (now considered either '' H. rhodesiensis'' or '' H. heidelbergensis'' and dated much earlier) *
Neanderthal Man Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle to Late Pleistocene. Neanderthal extinction ...
, 100,000–40,000 years old * Cro-Magnon Man, 40,000–5,000 years old * Modern Man, 40,000 years to the present


Intention

Contrary to appearances and some complaints, the original 1965 text of "The Road to Homo Sapiens" reveals an understanding of the fact that a linear presentation of a sequence of primate species, all in the direct line of human ancestors, would not be a correct interpretation. For example, the fourth of Zallinger's figures (''Oreopithecus'') is said to be "a likely side branch on man's family tree". Only the next figure (''Ramapithecus'') is described as "now thought by some experts to be the oldest of man's ancestors in a direct line" (something no longer considered likely). That implies that the first four primates are not to be considered actual human ancestors. Likewise, the seventh figure (''Paranthropus'') is said to be "an evolutionary dead end". In addition, the colored stripes, across the top of the figure, which indicate the age and duration of the various lineages clearly imply that there is no evidence of direct continuity between extinct and extant lineages and also, multiple lineages of the figured hominids occurred contemporaneously at several points in the history of the group.


Reception

The image has frequently been copied, modified, and parodied. It has also been criticized as "unintentionally and wrongly" implying that " evolution is progressive". The image has been described as having a "visual logic" of linear progression. ''
The Lancet ''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal, founded in England in 1823. It is one of the world's highest-impact academic journals and also one of the oldest medical journals still in publication. The journal publishes ...
'' called it "proverbial, much quoted or adapted, familiar to multitudes who have never seen its original version or heard of its maker". The image has become better-known than the science behind it. With regard to the way the illustration has been interpreted, the anthropologist and author of the section, F. Clark Howell, remarked:
Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould ( ; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American Paleontology, paleontologist, Evolutionary biology, evolutionary biologist, and History of science, historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely re ...
(1941–2002) condemned the iconology of the image in several pages of his 1989 book, '' Wonderful Life'', reproducing several advertisements and political cartoons that make use of the illustration to make their various points. In a chapter, "The Iconography of an Expectation", he asserted that The
intelligent design Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins".#Numbers 2006, Numbers 2006, p. 373; " Dcaptured headlines for it ...
advocate Jonathan Wells wrote in '' Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth?'' (2002), "Although it is widely used to show that we are just animals, and that our very existence is a mere accident, the ultimate icon goes far beyond the evidence." The book likens a selection of evolution theory textbook topics to the cover illustration thus qualified. Riley Black, writing for ''
Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...
'', argues that the idea of a "march of progress", as depicted in the 1965 Time-Life illustration, dates back to the medieval
great chain of being The great chain of being is a hierarchical structure of all matter and life, thought by medieval Christianity to have been decreed by God. The chain begins with God and descends through angels, Human, humans, Animal, animals and Plant, plants to ...
and the 19th century idea of the " missing link" in the
fossil record A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
. In her view, to understand life and evolution, "step one involves casting out types of imagery which constrain rather than enlighten." Writing in ''
Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...
'', Black added that "There is perhaps no other illustration that is as immediately recognizable as representing evolution, but the tragedy of this is that it conveys a view of life that does not resemble our present understanding of life's history."


Parodies and adaptations

The ''March of Progress'' has often been imitated, parodied, or adapted for commercial or political purposes. The cover of the 1972
Doors A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide secu ...
album '' Full Circle'' references the ''March of Progress'', as does the 1985
Supertramp Supertramp were a British rock band formed in London in 1970. Marked by the individual songwriting of founders Roger Hodgson (vocals, keyboards and guitars) and Rick Davies (vocals and keyboards), the group were distinguished for blending p ...
album '' Brother Where You Bound'', while the soundtrack CD for the 1992 movie ''
Encino Man ''Encino Man'' (also known as ''California Man'' in several territories) is a 1992 American comedy film directed by Les Mayfield in his directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates ...
'' shows an ape evolving into a
skateboarder Skateboarding is an action sport that involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry job, and a method of transportation. Originating in the United Stat ...
.Barringer (2006), ''Op. cit.'' The December 2005 issue of ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...
'' depicts hominids progressing up a flight of stairs to transform into a woman in a black dress holding a glass of
champagne Champagne (; ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, which demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, spe ...
to illustrate "The Story of Man". British rapper, Digga D, adapted a version of the image for the cover of his third mixtape, Noughty by Nature. The game Yume 2kki also has an "Event" which takes place in an area called "Chess World," the Event starts off by walking through a corridor similar to another location in the game, after the corridor ends, you are taken to a singular room with a throne, sitting on this throne will then teleport you to the Event.


Predecessors

Thomas Henry Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist who specialized in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The stor ...
's frontispiece to his 1863 book '' Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature'' was intended simply to compare the skeletons of apes and humans, but its unintentional left-to-right progressionist sequence has according to the historian Jennifer Tucker "become an iconic and instantly recognizable visual shorthand for evolution". An illustration, with the caption "Evolution", showing two sequences of four images, each illustrating a gradual transformation of an animal into a human, appeared in the 1889 editionProject Gutenberg text
search for second appearance of the word "crusher." Title page image shows "New York: Charles L. Webster & Company. 1889.
of
Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...
's ''
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'' is an 1889 historical novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The book was originally titled ''A Yankee in King Arthur's Court''. Some early editions are titled ''A Yankee at the Court ...
''.


References


External links

* {{Portal bar, Evolutionary biology, Paleontology, Science 1965 works Human evolution Paleoart Science in society Science education Infographics