Questions about Darwinism.?

Question

If it really is true, then why are there still apes, instead of all humans, if we are in fact, related to them?

Answer 1

The same question has stumped real biologists for decades as well, to a degree. I lived in Southwest Ohio for a while, and I dug some fence posts into the ground there. Occasionally I would dig up a rock that was obviously teeming with sea life fossils. I inquired about this and I was told that this part of Ohio is teeming with Cambrian era fossils, i.e. 500-550 million years old. The most incredible thing to me was how nearly identical they seemed to modern creatures that you would see walking on the beach today, especially the clamshells, snailshells, and worms that were present. There had been essentially no evolution in these life forms in all that time!! But this situation has been explained by the theory called "Punctuated Equilibrium". This holds that once a successful survival strategy is arrived at, it can remain essentially unchanged for millions of generations, since there is no survival pressure to make a change. This explains why clams and snails and worms look the same from 550,000,000 years ago as they do today. BUT, and it is a big BUT, if something in the environment changes, like an ice age or global warming or the arrival of a new kind of predator across a land bridge or anything else, then there is mass death followed by marginal survival of the remaining few, and these just barely hold on but begin to evolve rapidly due to the extreme pressure of death, and soon thereafter, there comes a completely new species that is far better able to cope with the new altered environment. This is really how evolution works in practice. It explains why wooly Mammouths evolved away from their elephant-like ancestors and it explains why humans evolved away from our chimpanzee-like ancestors, among many other examples.(Something like this really happened to our ancestors about 7-8,000,000 years ago, and yes, we really did just barely escape total extinction). Chimpanzees still exist today because there has been little or no evolutionary pressure for them to change since we split from our common ancestor. See helene_thygesen's answer above as well, which I totally agree with. I can tell that you are an intelligent, thinking person, and you are correct to ask such questions. That is the mark of a true scientist. Just keep up the good work and don't just aquiesce to simpleminded lines like "it is simply God's will" and then leave it at that. You are selling your very high intellect very short if you do.

Answer 2

I think it's a good question.

You see, Darwin's theory is often referred to as "survival of the fittest". This is unfortunate since it makes many people think that evolution has a unique direction, namely from "less fit" (the common ancestor of apes and humans) to "more fit" (humans) and you may wonder why the apes are not quite as "fit" as we are. But this is not how it works.

Once upon a time all African apes lived in the forest, presumably because almost all of Africa was covered by forest. Hence, only those apes that were good at climbing trees survived and a mutant that was less good at climbing trees but better at erect walking would have little chance of surviving.

But climate changed and large savannas emerged. Some apes found themselves near the great lakes of eastern Africa, in the savanna area. They did not (at least not frequently) interbreed with the those apes that remained in the forest, if only because of the geographic isolation of the lakes - the lakes provided shellfish but the savanna area distant from the lakes was not hospitable for apes. Millions of years of evolution made the lake apes more and more different from the forest apes, since any mutation that occurred and spread though the lake population would not reach the forest population, and wise versa. Also, mutants that were well adapted to swimming (=less body hair) and to erect walking, would survive and spread their genes if they hapened to be in the lake population, but not in the forest population.

Answer 3

Evolution by natural selection simply put is a combination of superior traits being passed down to subsequent generations. Now the reason that all apes haven't evolved to resemble humans is due to the segregation of populations. If you have isolated populations the environmental and social effects that influence their biology is going to be different. For example if you had a population of apes that thrived in the canopy of trees it wouldn't be genetically favourable to become nomadic and travel around. The best way to think about it would be to ask yourself why haven't all birds evolved into the same species. Well, some thrive on the water, some in mountain tops and some in urban areas. If you took a crow out 300miles into the ocean it wouldn't last too long but there are species of birds that spend virtually their entire lives hundreds of mile out into the ocean.

Answer 4

The question has been asked and anwered in this forum several times. Apes (particularly chimpanzees, who are probably our closest living relatives) and humans descended from a common ancestor. Typically, this involves a separation of the population of the ancestor species into disparate groups, which can evolve separately. As long as each of the descendant species is adequately fit for its environment, it will survive. Conditions may subsequently enable the populations to share the same space, and both may continue to survive. See the reference for much more on this.
The theory of evolution is now established science. This means that workers in the field routinely use it to make reliable predictions. There is some squabbling over details, as is true in any science, but as far as being essentially correct is concerned, it's a done deal.

Answer 5

Evolution is real and there should not be any doubt in any body's mind. Darwin propounded the theory called Natural Selection which he could prove. If a species could survive and multiply there would not be any marked change by evolution of its physical traits. Sharks are a species which did not evolve much during the last few million years as they could survive in their environment.
Humans and modern apes branched from a common ancestor and evolved independent to each other.

Answer 6

Because random mutation doesn't produce predictable outcomes. Just because we turned out this way, it doesn't mean this was the only possible outcome. It only seems inevitable because we're here to notice the result. It could have been different. The apes didn't end up where we did.

From the point of view of evolution, however, they were a very successful species until recent times--then we started invading their space. But evolution would not drive them to a significant change if they're well-adapted to their environment.

Try to remember that except for mental ability and endurance running, they're pretty much superior to us--They're certainly stronger and better able to survive without the aid of any tools. All things considered, evolution did quite well by them.

Answer 7

Though related through a common ancestor,humans and apes branched out and developed differently,who knows,with a little luck and apes might have been the ones throwing peanuts at us at the zoo

Answer 8

Mutations produce changes in the DNA which are passed on through the eggs or sperm of individuals. 'Natural Selection' and 'Survival of the Fittest' means that if a mutation gives an improved chance of survival it will be continued. The mutation does not change the original individual only its young.
Thus an ape will remain and ape but its young may through successive mutations become Humans.
That's the theory but it takes some swallowing how we became so 'intelligent' and different in that way from all other animals.
Visitations by spacemen perhaps!!!
Roy

Answer 9

yes, this is the an important question which no one knows the exact answer. This year scientists found some apes,i think in south america, who used rocks to break the nuts. scientists are wondering that whether they learned from humans or they learned by themselves. because if they learned it by themselevs, they are becoming intelligent like humans, and it will be an evidence for the theory of evolution or that of Darwinism about the evolution of the brain. but i think this evidence like the previous ones won't work.

there are some beliefs about the brain. one is that the brain is evolved by accident. other believed human beigns had many enemies and to find a way to escape, they used their brain alot which caused the evolution of brain.

Answer 10

There is no such thing as "darwinism".

Are you actually refering to "evolution"? If you are, and if you actually want to learn the answers to your questions, then i'd recommend that you grab yourself a college level biology book and read it.

Otherwise, stop trying to play "stump the atheist". It may come as a shock to you, but there are very good answers to all the questions you have about evolution. If you actually want to know the answers, you're going to have to take a bit of time to educate yourself about biology (especially genetics). Evolution is not a simple subject, and requires a bit of effort to understand.