Haeckel, E. (1874). Anthropogenie oder Entwickelungsgeschichte des Menschen. Engelmann, Leipzig. 2nd Edition. Plates IV and V. Collection and copyright: M.K. Richardson.

The fraudulent Professor, Ernst Haeckel, deliberately faked these drawings, making up an evolutionary connection between creatures by their similarly drawn embryos. The pictures persist to this day, even on TV, despite being debunked many years ago.

Photos of vertebrate embryos at 3 different stages of development. From: Richardson MK Hanken J Selwood L Wright GM Richards RJ Pieau C & Raynaud A (1998) Haeckel, Embryos and Evolution. Science, 280: 983-986. Copyright M.K. Richardson.

Embryologist, Dr Michael Richardson, of St George’s Hospital Medical School, London, has published these photographs of the real embryos. He said of Haekels drawings, “It is shocking that a…(great) scientist should be deliberately misleading… these are fakes.”