1874 \The Human family tree\". Table 12 from the first German edition of Haeckel's 'Anthropogenie', 1874. This is the first full 'tree of life' - though Haeckel had produced 'evolutionary bushes' for mammals etc as early as 1866. The image has been widely copied into school text books and popular accounts. Haeckel chose to show the evolutionary tree as ascending to the apes, with man evolved from them and at the very pinnacle. The impression of evolutionary progress this gives accords with Haeckel's own views, and those of most evolutionary scientists at the time. He has been strongly critisised for being highly speculative, and for giving the impression that mammals in general, and humans in particular, are the most highly evolved organisms. The Nazi's used such thinking as a pseudo-scientific basis for their extreme eugenics and racially motivated ethnic cleansing policies."