Cleve Cartmill's "The Link" (short story, mutant): Story of the down of man

Lok, the first hairless ape, expelled by his tribe for being a mutant that looks so different from rest of them, begins exercising his brain, finds the use of a club as weapon, & begins his arduous & difficult journey as ruler of earth. He will later rescue a damsel in distress, & we're all set to be eventually born.

Collected in.

1. Raymond J Healy & J Francis McComas (eds)' "Adventures in Time & Space".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, August 1942.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.