How come humans evolved faster compared to the apes who we share ancestors with?

Question

this might be the wrong place to ask but evolution is always talked about here...

Answer 1

It is theorized that there were actually a number of "lines" that evolved from the common evolutionary ancestor of man and ape, but that those lines ended for one reason or another.

The thing to keep in mind is this... adaptation is always a result of environmental pressures. Something happened in the environment of our ancestors to cause intelligence and "big brains" to be selected above instinct and "small brains". Remember, many species of small brained hominids existed unchanged for hundreds of thousands of years, and some still exist.

There are many theories as to what the "something" was that allowed our line to thrive, but it was probably a combination of events (changing climate, food supplies, etc) that together helped thinking hominids out compete our less intelligent cousins.

In actuality, there is no way to be sure. It could have been something fantastically simple like one day one of ancestors threw a stick, and suddenly we had invented the "distance weapon." This allowed members of our species to kill game at a distance, where our less intelligent neighbors could not, and hence we survived to populate the earth. It really could have been that random and simple. We just don't know for sure.

Answer 2

Humans started as Humans and acted like apes when they were in their early stages of life within the jungle trying to survive for life and nourishments from what the trees can offer. Man is competing with apes who lives on trees and having almost similar body construction, man must have been doing what the apes had been doing in similar fashion. The upright man could have developed that posture when they could no longer survive inside the jungle because of growing competitions and scarcity of foods. So they went out on the open field but with similar danger, they were facing a new kind of competition, the wild beasts like the lions and hyenas etc.that crawls on the ground and your only way to find the enemies is to develop a straight sight that can look on the horizon. The real apes does not have the kind of intelligence as the humans. Man theorized to have come from apes must be be because of the evolving shapes which can only be explained through biological adaptations to places or environment every man have been to. The scourching heat of the sun will make the skin pigment of the African reasonable as the White skinned caucasians is more reasonable to be found in cold regions. Heights, hair and shape of skulls, nose and eyes have adopted itself to the constant or harsh condition of the place.

Answer 3

If you want a real factual answer, you should ask this in biology, while many of us here are well versed in evolutionary theory it is more to counter the creationists anti-evolution drivel.

what you will get is a lot of thumbs down for saying that we evolved. You'll get a lot of "how come there are still monkeys if man evolved from monkeys"
You'll get a lot of "man and dinosaur footprints appear together, I saw it on Dr Dino"

But in answer to your question, I don't think we evolved faster necessarily, just ended up somewhere different. The main thing that evolved to a higher degree is our brain, which is what allows us to ask these existential questions.

Answer 4

We haven't evolved faster. Apes have taken just as long to reach their present state of evolution as we have taken to reach ours. I think you mean, why have humans evolved a higher level of intelligence than apes have in the same time frame? I don't know why specifically. You might as well ask why mammals evolved a higher level of intelligence than fish? It's just the way we evolved, that's all.

Answer 5

We didn't evolve faster. The other apes evolved for what we they are today. Humans found a different path whereby they changed their environment with tools.

Answer 6

the apes and humans did not follow the same path,that which became human were meat eaters which caused their brains to evolve rapidly ,due to greater amount of nutrients their bodies could use,additionally once they learned to cook their meat their internal function changed even more rapidly because cooked meat is easier for the body to utilize.since man had become more intelligent they were able to maintain superiority over other primates,and may have caused the extinction of neanderthals that were not assimilated into our species ,DNA testing confirms this

Answer 7

We haven't "evolved faster" we diverged. Premodern humans faced different environmental pressures than apes have thus forcing evolution to occur.

Answer 8

how do you know we evolved "faster"? we didn't, we just evolved differently, the purpose of evolution is not for everything to become "human like"

Answer 9

I don`t know if you have read all the Answers posted on here or not .
What I can see for sure is that some humans are reverting back to their ape cousins .
You can see this in their stubborness in accepting SCIENTIFIC FACTS

Answer 10

Our ancestors evolved on way, the apes went another. It has nothing to do with "faster", it had more to do with the niche we had carved for ourselves and the apes had made for themselves.

We were smaller omnivores who had to learn to be cleverer than our predators to survive. The apes were more herbivores and developed larger forms to discourage predators. Different pressures on different traits.