It was thought that Darwin had argued that man had descended from the apes. But he never actually wrote this in his book.

Darwin did not discuss human evolution in his book. He confined himself to a single sentence 'Light will be shown on the origin of man and his history'. Darwins wife, Emma, was a devout Christian and he did not want to upset her.

In later works he outlined his theories that human beings and modern apes and monkeys come from common more primitive ancestors, possibly some form of a Neanderthal man