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23 answers

I think the key thing to understand here is that humans are not the pinnacle of evolution. We are one of the many routes that evolution has taken and are certainly the most successful of the vertibrates at the moment. Essentially it is helpful to think of evolution as a tree rather than a ladder. On a ladder there is only one start and one finish (i.e. you start as a fish and end up a human), but evolution actually doesn't work like that. It works like a tree.

Imagine that the base of the trunk of the tree is the first animal (or plant or whatever) on earth. as you move up the trunk it splits, where it splits the first animal, becomes two new and slightly different types of animals. Their are many potential reasons for this split, lack of food, change in the environment, moving to a new place. When they split into two new animals, that is the trunk becoming 2 new branches. Now we follow those 2 branches and then both of those split into 2, so now we have 4 different animals.

This process carries on and on until you have all the different animals on earth. When a branch ends, the species at the end of the branch has become extict.

So with chimps, sometime (about 4-5 million years ago) the branch that we both used to be on split, so we share a common ancestor.

If you are interested in evolution, whether you believe or not, I would strongly recommend that you read some of Richard Dawkins books, The Blind Watchmaker is a good place to start.


edit.....

AND as the flamers have already started, there IS evidence to support evolution, I deliberately, just put forth the theory, but as there are people claiming it has no backing I would suggest that you look at the example of the peppered moth. It may only be micro-evolution, but one animal has been observed over a 200 year period adapting to its environment by forming two distinct sub-species. I could offer more examples, but what's the point.

I would contend that if there is a God (and I am not going to say whether I believe or not as that is irrelevant) surely He would factor into His design the ability for us to adapt to a changing world.

2007-01-22 09:19:09 · answer #1 · answered by Kit 2 · 2 0

This question gets asked all the time - and it's a really good question - at least as good as if so many americans came from spanish and english people - why are there still england and spain?

Chimps didnt evolve in to humans they evolved from a common ancestor about 5 million years ago. If you can't understand the difference then you need to go read up on evolution because the question implies quite a bit of ignorance. If we invented planes, why are there still cars?

Look up evolutionary niche, habitat... just read something on evolution. Or try searching for questions like this since they've been asked 100 times before.

One more thing - why would chimps now evolve in to humans? What sort of evolution do you think humans are undergoing or do you think we're the point of evolution, the finish line? That's kind of what it sounds like and its totally false.

2007-01-22 21:33:56 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Have you noticed that chimps are still here?? That would indicate that they haven't evolved into anything. But chimps and humans are both primates, and undoubtedly had a common ancestor in the distant past. By the way, chimps are evolving today. So is every other species on earth.
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2007-01-22 11:18:28 · answer #3 · answered by PaulCyp 7 · 0 0

Chimpanzees did not evolve into humans and no scientist has ever claimed they did. Chimpanzees and humans had a common ancestor about 7 million years ago. Separation is the likely mechanism for one group to evolve into hominids while another took a different route to become chimpanzees. On the way there were branches that became extinct and other branches that evolved further. The result of that separation 7 million years ago is three modern apes - humans, chimpanzees and bonobos. 100,000 years ago there was a fourth species, homo neanderthalis, the Neanderthals, but they are now extinct.

The gorillas and the orangoutans split from the protohominid line before the split for chimpanzees so we are more closely related to the chimp than we are to gorillas.

There are some excellent resources to help you understand science. If you want to find out more about evolution and what science has to say about it check the Talk Origins Archive at http://www.talkorigins.org

Don't bother with creationist sites, there is no science to be found there.

2007-01-22 10:05:41 · answer #4 · answered by tentofield 7 · 1 0

Darwin never claimed, as some of his Victorian contemporaries insisted he had, that “man was descended from the apes,” and modern scientists would view such a statement as a useless simplification—just as they would dismiss any popular notions that a certain extinct species is the “missing link” between man and the apes. There is theoretically, however, a common ancestor that existed millions of years ago. This ancestral species does not constitute a “missing link” along a lineage but rather a node for divergence into separate lineages. This ancient primate has not been identified and may never be known with certainty, because fossil relationships are unclear even within the human lineage, which is more recent. In fact, the human “family tree” may be better described as a “family bush,” within which it is impossible to connect a full chronological series of species, leading to Homo sapiens, that experts can agree upon.

2007-01-22 09:44:36 · answer #5 · answered by Britannica Knowledge 3 · 1 0

As I understand it a common ancestor evolved into chimps etc and humans.

2007-01-22 08:39:56 · answer #6 · answered by oslo 3 · 1 0

first of all we did not evolve from apes. We and the apes advanced from an person-friendly ancestor. Which become probably very very reminiscent of an ape. Secondly, apes are nonetheless evolving! Given time, tens of millions of years, they'd evolve into more suitable sensible beings! some human beings used to imagine black human beings in Africa were evolving apes, yet no longer as far advanced as us. (No kidding! they truly did! This turned right into a justification for slavery.) some species were round for 1000's and 1000's of years with out replacing in any respect. Alligators and crocodiles, for instance, were only a similar because the time of the dinosaurs. So why did not they evolve? there is component of evolutionary idea noted as 'punctuated equilibrium' that explains why component of a inhabitants evolves and section doesn't. the way it truly works (in accordance to the conception) is that a inhabitants of animals evolves to examine their ecosystem. when they do, they end replacing because they're 'completely' advanced for his or her ecosystem. Then some crew of those animals go away that ecosystem--for instance, the valley the position they stay is crowded so as that they migrate over the hills into the subsequent valley. the ecosystem there is distinct, so those few of those animals who're more suitable equipped to the recent ecosystem have an income, so as that they they commence evolving back till they once more suitable attain 'equilibrium' with their new ecosystem. So now you've 2 species, or subspecies, the position previously you had purely one. if truth be told this become what led Darwin to this idea interior the first position. He visited the Galapagos Islands the position each and each island had a somewhat distinct type of turtles, birds, and so on., because the environments of those islands were all a touch distinct. in the period in-between those crocodiles, who've been in equilibrium with their ecosystem for all this time, have not replaced a lot in 40 million years, because their ecosystem hasn't replaced!

2016-10-15 23:01:16 · answer #7 · answered by ? 4 · 0 0

1) Chimps did n't evolve into humans..both species evolved from a common ancestor.

2) Evolution is a slow and gradual process,it takes thousands/millions of years...you can't see subtle changes overnight or indeed over a few years.

2007-01-22 23:26:12 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

The genetic difference between humans and chimps is that 2 chimp chromosomes have fused to form the 2nd human chromosome.
This mutation was a one off event and it is only the the descendents of that mutant that have become human, ie; us.
Chimpanzees still exist because they inhabit a different ecological niche to humans (rainforest).
The Pope speculated that the genes of the soul may be found at the point of fusion in the 2nd Chromosome in his 1996 statement.
Charles Darwin explained why different closely related species exist together on the same planet in chapter 6 of On The Origin Of Species published in 1859.

2007-01-22 10:09:49 · answer #9 · answered by Red P 4 · 1 2

primarily because chimps didnt evolve into humans

at some stage chimps and humans chared a common ancestor, I seem to remember that chimps & humans share around 99% DNA, but then again we humans share around 60% DNA with plants

This common ancestor developed into the two separate species.

Its all a theory, but at least it has some grounding in fact, evidence and proof, and in my view is a far more sensible and believable explanation than one than creationism or the equally laughable 'intelligent design'

TH eonly people who seem to cliam that Evolutionary theory suggests Human kind evolved from chimps are believers in (some) religion, where they use that as a way of rubbishing evolution in favour of soemhting written down in a book hundreds of years ago, where there is no subtance, evidence or proof of the theories as proposed in the bible.. lots of belief, but belief without proof is just that belief, not fact.

2007-01-22 08:46:06 · answer #10 · answered by Mark J 7 · 3 0

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