If Darwins right & we evolved from apes, why are there still apes now?

Question

Does anyone really believe we were once apes! How come only humans can talk, how come we're so weak? Why would a species evolve interlectually for the good, yet physically for the worse?If theres still apes today are we supposed to also believe that in 5 or so million years us homo-sapiens will evolve into something else. In that future time will there be human specimens that havn't evolved and look just like us today? If todays Apes didn't evolve it goes to reason all of us won't either! If its a very gradual transission over millions of years where are all the half man, half ape creatures? What came first, the standing on two legs or the talking? Forgive the sarcasm but I actually do believe in Darwins theory, only take mankind out of it and everything fits in. We are the only Aliens of this planet. As we dumped our prisoners at Bottany Bay, it is my belief that the first humans on earth were transported here from a World light years away. We are now evolving, from Caveman, not Ape!

Answer 1

I have a theory-only some people evolved from apes. Others are descendants of a higher intelligence. My ex-husband definitely is the result of evolving from apes.lol

Answer 2

Dogs evolved from wolves. There is really very little doubt about this, because it was a deliberate domestication by man which occured in our recent pre-history, and there is much supporting archaeological and genetic evidence. Following this domestication, man has created many different breeds of dogs. Many of the original breeds still exist alongside the newer breeds, and indeed the original wolf still exists alongside the dog. Other older breeds of dog have died out. Some breeds of dog such as the German Shepherd, resemble wolves more closely than others, such as the Miniature Poodle. If you can accept all that, what's your problem with man being an ape?

As far as we can determine, there were many different man-like creatures which evolved, but for some reason which we don't entirely understand all the other branches died out except ours, and this was relatively recent - the most recent extinction was only a few thousand years ago. These other species were also bipedal and could communicate to some extent but not like we can.

The reason why evolution leaves some creatures (such as cockroaches and sharks) untouched for millions of years is that when a species is extremely well adapted to its environment then it may be that all genetic mutations are less well adapted and therefore die out, leaving the original model only. With other species, the mutations are more or less equally well adapted and survive, with further mutations, until perhaps some significant evolutionary milestone makes them well adapted to a different environment, or better adapted to the one they're in. In this case it's entirely possible for the original species to carry on living in its original environment alongside the "new" species. Every so often the environment changes and perhaps both species will die off, or perhaps only one of them.

The standing on two legs came first (by some distance). This allowed further development of the brain which in turn led to talking.

Answer 3

I like saz17's answer. I think I might try to join her church.

Seriously, we didn't evolve from apes. Are near as we can tell, we evolved from something similar, but you always hear references to a "missing link". This basically means we still don't understand how we arrive at the animals we are today so quickly.

We are essentially the same as all other animals that live under the same conditions. We are symmetrical, we have 2 eyes, a nose, a mouth for eating... and all our features are in the same order. You don't often see an animal with their mouth above the nose, or eyes on the back of the head. It just goes to show that we are of this planet.

What hasn't been answered is how we got such a big boost. Human must have underwent an extreemly rapid mutation to end up as the hairless, big brained builders we are today. Perhaps we did have some help along the way. A bizare experiment by some E.T. scientist maybe? We'll never know.

Answer 4

We did evolve from apes. So did many different sorts of apes and that i doubt our maximum immediately ahead ancestors are nevertheless round because organic determination likely phased them out. The circumstances for evolution notwithstanding can't be set till a populations ecosystem has replaced. Therefor think about one inhabitants stay the position they're and function yet another of a similar species both migrate or journey a replace of their habitat so the first you are able to nevertheless stay fairly a similar and the 2d you are able to nevertheless journey more effective drastic transformations by the years as organic determination (the making use of stress of evolution) takes position. Oh ya, not something ever stops evolving. seem on the transformations between people even in very few hundred thousand years. If we may were kept separated (of direction transportation has bumped off all obstacles) interior a short era of time (by technique of short I recommend some hundred thousand to at least a million or so years) there should be numerous diverse human populations.

Answer 5

Hoofalucy, even though this question has been asked *dozens* of times ... and answered every time with dozens of good explanations ... I take from your details that you are really asking a genuine question, not just making a smug comment that you *think* stumps evolutionists.

Specifically, you say: "I actually do believe in Darwins theory, only take mankind out of it and everything fits in." And then "We are now evolving, from Caveman, not Ape!"

So your problem is not with evolution ... or even with *human* evolution ... but just the fact that this evolution indicates some kinship between humans and "apes".

[First, I should clarify that technically, humans *are* apes. This should not be an insult, any more than the statement that we "humans are primates" or "humans are mammals". It's just a way to classify organisms that have things in common. "Ape" basically just means tail-less primate ... to distinguish them from "monkeys" which are primates with tails.]

If you accept the idea that we have "caveman" in our ancestry, then where did "caveman" come from?

The answer provided by the theory of evolution is that the very process that let us evolve from "caveman" is the exact same process that let dogs evolve from wolves; or cats evolve from wildcats, which evolved from much larger cats; or birds evolve from dinosaurs which evolved from reptiles which evolved from amphibians which evolved from lobe-finned fishes, etc. etc. Everything evolves from a more "primitive" ancestor (although I hate that word "primitive" as it implies "lower" or "less advanced", and this is a bad image to use).

Or to put it another way ... the same process that can produce subtle changes over 200,000 years (the time it has taken "humans" to evolve from "caveman"), can produce huge changes over 2,000,000 years, and over 6,000,000 years (the amount of time that scientists think we branched off from the other great apes), the changes can be significant enough to explain the differences between us and chimps (our closest relative). Along the way there were other branches, such as the Neanderthals, who died out as little as 20,000 years ago.

The reason there are still apes now, is the same answer to the question "If Darwin is right, and amphibians evolved from lobe-finned fishes, then whey are there still fishes today?" The answer is that, just because *some* fishes evolved the ability to survive on land, which gets their eggs away from predators ... doesn't mean that *all* fishes have to do the same thing ... the water is still a great place for fishes to live.

So the evidence for there being some historical relationship that ties humans to the other apes (and the apes to other primates, and the primates to other mammals, etc. etc.) is pretty substantial (genetic similarities, molecular (DNA) evidence, fossil finds, physical similarities (e.g. color vision, opposable thumbs, the distributions of the primates on the planet, embryological similarities, etc.). It's certainly stronger than the evidence that "caveman" was transported here from another planet ... there is *no* evidence for that (as far as I know).

I hope that explains it.

Answer 6

To quote directly from Origin of the Species;

On the absence or rarity of transistional varieties.AS natural selection acts solely by the preservation of profitable modifications, each new form will tend in a fully stocked country to take the place of, and finally to exterminate, its own less improved parent or other less favoured forms with which it comes into competition. Thus extinction and natural seletion go hand in hand. Hence if we look at each species as descended from some other unknown form, both the parent and all the transitional varieties will generally have been exterminated by the very process of formation and perfection of the new form.

Lucy (Austrolapithacus aferensis) shows us that the first development by which the ancestors of men could be distinguished from those of other apes was bipedalism.

Answer 7

We evolved from an isolated population of apes. The main population evolved into chimpanzees. For a related question, you might as well ask:

If Christians are evolved from Jews, why are there still Jews?

Answer 8

Just wanted to add that we didn't evolve from apes, we ARE apes. All apes and monkeys evolved from a common ancestor, the apes split off from the monkeys, and we (along with gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, and bonobos) are a twig on the ape branch of the tree of life.

Answer 9

Ok, first of all, understand Darwin's theory before you post something like this. Darwin didn't say we evolved from apes, that's a commone misconception. Darwin said that all creatures had a common ancestor. He just meant that the ape was on the closest branch of life to us, not that we literally evolved from them.

Answer 10

I think you are misunderstanding the term apes and misunderstanding evolution.

We are apes. We evolved from an extinct ape, from which chimpanzees and bonobos also evolved separately.

The common ape ancestor of chimps, bonobos and humans evolved from another ape from which gorillas also evolved.

It's like a tree from which branches keep sprouting.

Read this excellent site: http://www.becominghuman.org/

Answer 11

We evolved from ape-like creatures, not the apes you see nowadays. They also evolved from the same ancestors. we evolved to be brainy rather than physically excellent simply because it works- evolution goes by the rule of whatever works, stays. If it doesn't work, it dies. Whether or not we are still evolving is a difficult question- our breeding habits now are based on more than survival of the fittest.