if we all are supposed to have come from APES, WHY havent all Apes evolved into Humans.?????

Answer 1

John, let me try to give you a serious answer, okay.

Evolution is not a spontaneous thing. It is driven by external environmental forces. Consider the great sharks. We have fossil evidence of sharks over 80 million years old, and they look virtually the same as shark today. Why? Because, as I said, evolution is not driven internally, it is driven by external changes in the environment. If the environment remains stable, so do the species in that environment.

Let me give you a relatively recent example of how Natural Selection works. There are slight genetic differences among all members of a species. Most of these mutations are harmful, but sometimes they can be beneficial. There used to be a species of moth common in the English Midlands that was white, and it used to rest on the trunks of white sycamore trees where it was virtually invisible to the predatory birds. Every so often, because of mutation, some moths would be born that were pepper collered. How did this happen? It's called genetic mutation. Genes change when recombined. This is one reason why two healthy parents can give birth to a child with a crippling birth defect. Most mutations are deadly.

Indeed, the mutant pepper moths rested on the white trees, and they were quickly eaten by birds, so not many of them lived long enough to pass on their traits to the next generation. The environment thus ensures that only the favored adaptation (in this case "whiteness") lives to produce the next generation of young. Because the peppered moths were easily spotted they got eaten and thus didn't live to reproduce. Got it?

But a funny thing happened -- the environment changed. With the advent of the industrial revolution, smoke-stacks throughout the midlands started belching out tons of black, sooty, coal smoke. It coated the white trees tuning them into a dirty color. With the change in environment, came a change in who survived. Now that the trees were dirty, it was the white moths who stood out and got eaten by the birds, and the peppered moths who soon prospered and took over the midlands.

So how does the pepper moth help answer your question? Natural Selection works the same on our ancestors. The great apes were natural in the African forests. They were perfectly adapted to their environments, and their numbers increased. As their numbers increased, many were pushed out of the jungles because there simply wasn't enough room to support all of them.

All of the fossil records for proto-humans are found, not in the jungles, but in the grasslands beyond the jungles in areas know as the Veldt (or, Savanna) regions. In these regions food and water are not plentiful, moreover, predators were many. Those proto-humans forced onto the Veldts had to adapt to a much harsher environment that was thick with new predators. That was their new environment. Most of them died out, but some did not. Some managed to survive because mutation gave them smaller bodies but bigger brains (in the same way today, some families can unexpetedly give birth to a child genius, while other families can give birth to someone mentally retarded). It happens, John. Nobody can predict the course of mutation.

Back in Africa, while the surviving great apes in the jungles continued to thrive in an environment for which they were already ideally suited, evolution stopped. Why? Becuase evolution is nothing more than adaptation to environmental changes. If the environment doesn't change, then neither do the species. But for the proto-humans faced with the need to adapt to greater challenges, evolution picked up. And who among those out on the Veldt survived? Naturally, the ones with the most smarts. And when they reproduced, they passed on that capacity to their offspring. And thus over time, you have a completely new species emerging because of the forces of Natural Selection and genetic mutation.

I hope this answers your question.

Answer 2

The issue here is that there is a misunderstanding.....

Hsapiens did not come from apes. Rather the great apes and hsapiens both share a common ancestor. Consequently, the great apes evolved into great where we evolved into h.sapiens.

Consider that DNA testing has put us closer to Bonobo chimps than troglodytes or to other great apes. we also share more DNA with chimps than with Neanderthals.

Consider evolution for a moment....

You know those standard cleaners that kill 99.9% of of germs? well the .1% not killed have an immunity. and they reproduce. so eventually that cleaner will clean but not disinfect.

Also look at how antibiotics have been misused and now we need stronger and stronger antibiotics to help us get better. Just look at VRE (Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus). odd how a bacteria commonly found in our intestines has evolved/mutated into a strain that is resistant a specific antibiotic.

Answer 3

This question has already been asked and answered about a trillion times...go here to see all of the exact same questions and thier answers!!

http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result;_ylt=AmXSTB9JNMsiJC8TuM8ljLyyFQx.?p=If+humans+evolved+from+apes+then+why+are+there+still+apes%3F

PS the correct answer is...there are still apes because they are a different species of ape than we are....we both share a common ancestor but diverged from eachother long ago.. Not all apes have evolved into humans because each ancestor took a different path of evolutionary development, only one of those paths led to being humans.....all the others evolved into different types of primates, suited to thier own environment...it is most likely impossible that creatures with common ancestors will take the exact same evolutionary path as one another.

Answer 4

Evolution is not like a straight line that every single species has to follow, if that was the case there would be no bio-diversity. Different mutations and adaptations to different environments create new species.

At some point the needs of a common ancestor changed, those who would become apes took one route and hominids took another. Many of the hominids were unsuccessful and got extincted on the road. Homo-Sapiens is the only of the hominids who's made it (so far).

Answer 5

Yikes. Ok, so evolution doesn't work like Pokemon. The only reason that they would is if there would be a reason that Apes would go extinct. Evolution (at least the way a majority of people agree on) means that Apes and humans had a common ancestor.

Answer 6

Bush is a fine example of an evolutionary work in progress. A little farther on than ape, a little less than human yet...some apes are still evolving.

Answer 7

Good question! I always thought that when a species evolved it became something higher than its original state. Since apes still exist, they never evolved? I can't answer the question but I support you 100%.

Answer 8

If you are referring to Darwinism you have been misled by the religious nutters who opposed him.
His theory was that man and the apes evolved from a common ancestor so they have been on different evolutionary paths ever since.
Quite different from the proposition in your question.

Answer 9

Some of them decided to leave the forest and try something new. They started to stand upright and eventually became humans. The other just decided to stay in the trees and evolved in their own way.

Answer 10

Evolution doesn't have the goal of making apes (or anybody else) smarter.