The first systematic investigation of the anatomical differences between apes and humans came in 1699, when Edward Tyson dissected both human beings and chimpanzees and pointed out their points of divergence.
The work of describing, classifying, and distinguishing human beings and other primates was carried on in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by Buffon, Lamarck, Baron Cuvier, but the most important person in the field, often considered the founder of physical anthropology, is Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. !!! More!
Early physical anthropology is often marked by the tendency to conflate cultural and biological characteristics. ???