If evolution is true, how come apes and monkeys aint evolving into humans anymore?

Question

and why are they still any left? wouldent they have all of evolved into humans?

Answer 1

missing the point there - apes and chimps are part of the same family, but are NOT precursors to humans. we shared a common ancestor at one point, but we took different evolutionary directions and became different species.

Answer 2

You thinking that evolution is linear. It is not it's more random than that. If you look at humans now, for instance, you can trace all humans alive today to just one female. That does not mean that there was only one female around at the time just that the other lines died out for one reason or another, leaving us with just one ancestor. The split between humans and Apes took place such a long time ago that any evolution we might have shared has since been lost. They are literally on another branch in the evolution tree, the gaps being the evolutionary steps that did not make it.

Answer 3

There is no scope for an existing ape to give rise to something like a human - the human niche is already occupied by humans!

As ape habitats continually disappear, the most likely outcome is their extinction. But if a small population of (for example) chimps has a slight difference in physiology that allows them to live in a different environment, for example on the edges of human habitation, foraging in our rubbish, whatever, they will survive and that trait will be selected.

Any slight change conferring a slight advantage in the new environment will be further selected. Provided the new environment doesn't also disappear, given enough time, a new animal that isn't a chimp anymore will be perfectly adapted to that habitat. But it won't be a human, nor anything like.

If any areas of original chimp habitat are still around by then, it will probably still have chimps as we know them, or very similar, because the new animal couldn't compete with them there.

Answer 4

Apes never did evolve into humans. Millions of years ago some ape-like creatures evolved into humans and others evolved into apes.
Non-human apes are still adapting and evolving today, sadly it may well not be fast enough for them to survive.


Evolution doesn't work that way.

Evolution is a long process, but it isn't an A to B process - it's not a progression. Many people imagine evolution as a progression from single celled organism to shrimp to fish to frog to lizard to bird to monkey to ape to human - it's not really like that.

Evolution is blind - it's doesn't have a purpose or aim. Organisms undergo mutations - most of which will kill the individual. Those mutation that are in fact adaptations - that benefit the species - will be passed on. If it's advantageous to the reproductive fitness of the species for long enough, it'll become part of the genome.

Most cases of evolution take an extremely long time (there are exceptions - notably that of a moth in industrial England - originally, it was white speckled black, to blend in with birch bark. During the industrial revolution, the trees became blackened with soot. Over just a few moth generations, a sub type which already existed [that's important] which was black speckled white became dominant. As the environment was cleaned up, the situation reversed itself again. But remember, the sub type already existed). Most of the time, people cannot see species 'evolve' (and remember, individuals don't evolve, species do).

The ape is adapted to its environment (mostly - the environment, because of man, is changing quicker than the species can adapt). It is not a 'poor cousin' or a 'lesser being' - it is simply a different being. Remember, we haven't, in any case, evolved from (say) the chimp. Humans and chimps evolved from a common ancestor, but not from each other.

There are many, many book and websites to check out - I'd suggest Wikipedia to start - Stephen J Gould is a good read as well.

Source(s):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/evolution...


http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:f4JDP26j9fwJ:www.boiseguardian.com/2006/03/21/evolution_humans_to_monkeys_chimps_gorillas.html+apes+and+monkeys+aint+evolving+into+humans&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3

Answer 5

Monkeys and extant apes species never have evolved into humans. We all share a common ancestor, and so we have a suite of common characteristics. Monkeys, non-human apes and humans are all still evolving, we evolve in response to changes in our environment, without a set goal, so nothing evolves specifically into anything else.

Oh, and the reason why we still have monkeys, non-human apes, and humans is that the ecological niches occupied by all three of us still exist, and we are still the best adapted species to occupy those niches.

Answer 6

This question is asked WAY too much on this site. You have a misunderstanding of evolution. Apes, monkeys, and ourselves are still evolving. We are evolving parallel to one another from a common ancestor. Chimps didn't evolve into men, rather chimps and man evolved from something else.

Answer 7

1- how can you tell that monkeys and apes are not evolving? this is a very slow and gradual proccess

2- the phrase 'similar solutions for simliar problems' is relevant to evolution, and all simians are not nessesarily evolved from the same animal all that time ago.

3- They probably would not evolve into humans, we cannot tell what they would evolve into

Answer 8

They are still evolving just as you are, are you not wondering around worrying about apes and thinking, is this not evolving, i bet they are just doing the same and one day they will change as we have done we are getting taller, faster and living longer are they not just doing the same it just takes time and we have plenty of that (don't we)

Answer 9

Do you think everything just evolves towards being human and then stops?
Ha ha ha!
So by that logic, why hasn't everything become human yet? Why are there any other living things left?
Cuh!!!
What a very silly question indeed!

Answer 10

if you look at a species that is the same now as it was in pre-historic times. It shows that once the prime result of evolving has been achived it stops... ie Mosquito's
To look at the primate family and say they are not evolving is wrong they are, as we still are, it's just that everything behind use that we were was not the prime result.... great Question

Answer 11

Who says they aren't? Evolution happens over millions of years and we've only been studying these animals for the past hundred or so. In a million years time apes could be fish! Its complately feasible.