Did we really evolve from monkeys?

Question

If that were true then why are their still monkeys? Why did they not all evolve??

Answer 1

No. I agree with you; if we evolved from monkeys, why are there monkeys still here?

Answer 2

Didn't you ask this exact same question several weeks back? Well. the answer is the same as then: humans did not evolve from monkeys, humans coevolved with the apes. There is known to be common ancestry with apes, but we and they remain different species.

Darwin, by the way, never claimed humans evolved or descended from monkeys. Given the behavior of some human beings lately, one has to wonder whether or not some of us perhaps descended from jackasses - like George W. Bush!

Answer 3

That is true, if we evolved from monkeys/apes/whatever the laws of evolution (and common sense) would dictate that there shouldn't be anymore of them in existence. The theory is that we and the other members of the primate family evolved from a common ancestor, not that one day a monkey gave birth to a human. :)

Answer 4

religious speculation has led me to believe we were created in gods image... and the evolution theory must mean he evolved from a monkey ( or primate)...

which means we ourselves did not evolve from monkeys... god did.. and somehow he later created us in his image...

however... by "in his image" maybe they mean image like a kindof mental image that he had of how we should look...

so then god would simply remain as he is...

and perhaps we evolved from the previous image of monkeys he had to the image he then formed of how We should look...

perhaps he started the change in monkeys that developed us into what we are... and he felt no need to change the others because they already had their place in his balance of things... creating a human was just an experiment to see how things would play out...


-jk
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To my knowledge:

evolution comes from many sources...

survival of the fittest, where good genes get better...

mutation.... random mutation in dna... favorable change is kept...

isolation... changes occur and not everyone gets them....

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so the monkeys have no reason to evolve... they fit perfectly in their niche and their place in the food chain...

however, if some mutation occured as they sometime do... then the favorable gene would take over and be spread through the future progeny... making an entirely new species sometimes.

also... species tend to keep to their own species when mating...
keeping that mutation or evolved gene within their own.

and sometimes different species are so different that cross-mating is impossible...even if it were to occur the eggs wouldnt develope...or become fertilized.

basically the monkeys wouldnt all change because they have no need to, mutations are kept in certain species, and evolution really doesnt work like that... if that were true.. then all the monkeys would have evolved and we would be rivals for intelligence... as it would be critical to our survival because the other rival factions of monkeys would try to kill us in competion for food and overall survival.

it would be interesting to see how such a rivalry and evolution would play out though.... it might have led us to some great technological advancements... maybe better than we have now... and maybe as our intelligence grew we would realize our place in the world... seeing no need to fight and promoting worldwide balance and peace among the races.

Answer 5

Well.. yes is our simple answer but the its more complex than that. You see we as humans are primates like our counterparts but through environmental changes that occurred in Africa( which was once dense jungle that allowed our ancestors to swing from tree to tree) now was a savanna with flat lands. With this new landscape our ancestors were force to come down from tree and started to walk upright which was a necessity to see our enemies. And with time our ancestors diverge and we became a new species. But our origin came from the monkeys, DNA analysis shows that we share 99% of our DNA with the chimpanzee which is our closest cousins. Therefore the answer is yes we did evolve from monkey to make a long argument short.

Answer 6

All animal have a common ancestry. The primate that we most recently shared an ancestor with is the Chimpanzee. By, definition all the primates today evolved, they just evolved into something different. That is the beauty of nature, the diversity that makes life on this planet so interesting.

Answer 7

The great thing about science is we're always adding to our knowledge and correcting bits we got wrong. (Try that with religion.) Evolution is not a straight line but many roads diverging over time. Clearly we have much in common with other primates. Or god made Adam and Eve and their only surviving son married some mystery woman and we're descended from a murderer. Or maybe Noah really did put 50 million species of animals on a tiny boat, along with an indefinite supply of food. (Hey, does that include dinosaurs?) Believe whatever others tell you and makes you happy! Don't be a slave to critical thinking!

Answer 8

Couple of months ago, tehy found out the taces of the oldest human skeletons ever discovered and they found out that we have been around way before we expected! The monkey and the human skeletons were very different from each other and we could not be part of monkey"s families. The Darwin Theory of Human Evolution was once again rejected y scientists!

Answer 9

Humans belong the the chimpanzee family. Chimps, bonobos and humans share 98% + dna. It is thought that we evolved from earlier primates over millions of years. Evolutions end isn't necessarily humans.. it is simply an adaptive process... monkeys evolve to fit thier enviroment too.

Answer 10

We evolved from the same ancestors as monkeys. Think of them as a distance cousin.

Answer 11

We and every living thing have evolved!
Every human, animal or plant has EVOLVED!
Their bodies adapt to survive and change through time...
see: http://wwwrses.anu.edu.au/environment/eePages/eeDating/HumanEvol_info.html

Sharks, cats, reptiles etc... Everything a million years ago was very different! DONT Question that! And We were very very different 200 thousand years ago...


->We and monkeys have EVOLVED and we may share VERY OLD common ANCESTORS...

NEW Species can form in many ways:
through adaptations and diferenciation...
mutations, hybrids.... etc...

see cichlid fishes: which adapted from one lake into many different forms... http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/05/0504_050504_chiclids.html

What once thought a species of butterfly is really a SPECIES created from two different species...Heliconius heurippa
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060616135623.ht


See Okapi: (come on, maybe some prehistoric zebras and giraffes shared more than we think? I believe something like that...) Wikipedia says not...
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLJ,GGLJ:2006-09,GGLJ:en&q=okapi

read, search about : Tygons and Ligers , crosse of TIGERS and LIONS...

THE BIBLE IS A HISTORY BOOK, FULL OF OLD KNOWLEDGE and wise words and theories based on the knowledge of the people in that era! We are SMARTER NOW!
------------ UNDENIABLE -----

Everybody should read it, but BE SMART with interpretations an fables!!


If GOD created just ADAM & EVE ,
(Cain killed his brother Abel) ... Did Cain or Seth had many sons and daughters with HIS MOTHER EVE ??? Are we all sons of a fraticide murderer... UFFFF? maybe?
Who saw it and wrote about it... EVE?

Analyze , LEARN and EVOLVE into better beings!!!!
and remember GOD is the FITTEST & SMARTEST...
Respect HIM by acting with respect to all the other sons of GOD!
Do we ultimately came from a first prokariote cell???
well... maybe?