How did Thomas Henry Huxley challenge Richard Owen’s claims about human and ape brains?

In 1861, Thomas Henry Huxley challenged Richard Owen by denying his claim that there were significant anatomical differences between human and ape brains.1

At the time, Owen sought to distinguish humans from other primates by asserting that the human brain possessed unique structural features. Huxley, acting as a staunch defender of Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theories, publicly disputed this assertion. By arguing that human and ape brains did not differ in the fundamental ways Owen described, Huxley effectively undermined a key scientific barrier used to separate humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. This dispute brought the subject of human evolution to the forefront of public attention and solidified Huxley’s role as a leading proponent of scientific naturalism.1