The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black by E. B. Hudspeth

Philadelphia. The late 1870s. Home to the famous anatomist and surgeon Dr. Spencer Black. The son of a "resurrectionist" (aka grave robber), Dr. Black develops an unconventional hypothesis: What if the world's most celebrated mythological beasts--mermaids, minotaurs, and satyrs--were in fact the evolutionary ancestors of humankind?