If we humans evolved from the monkeys, why are they still with us?

Answer 1

We did NOT evolve from monkeys and apes. We all evolved from a common ancestor who is no longer alive.

Answer 2

As everyone keeps telling you humans did not evolve from monkeys and even if they had monkeys occupy an ecological niche up in the trees which they can exploit while humans can't.

To understand primate evolution compare them to another mammalian order such as carnivores, you don't think that cats evolved from dogs or vice versa, but probably can appreciate that sharp teeth and hunting tendencies came from a common ancestor and that at some stage cats and dogs went their own separate ways. Monkeys and apes are the equivalent to cats and dogs and humans are just one ape - maybe the lion to the chimpanzee's tiger.

Hope that makes some sense.

Answer 3

Because they evolved too. The great apes, including chimpanzees, are stronger than us humans. (A 180-pound chimp would wipe the floor with a 180-pound wrestler.) The others are smaller and more nimble that we are. (Watch a gibbon swinging through the trees, but don't try to imitate him, unless you have an affinity for broken bones.)

Here is a little something extra for you:

Back in 1776, monarchists argued against democracy as a form of government. They said it was absurd to believe that "All men are created equal" because anyone could see men came in different heights, weights and colors. Women did too. Case closed.

My point is not about democracy. It is about debate. Before you argue about something, you should understand it. If you don't understand it, you'll look foolish. Gilda Radner, on the original "Saturday Night Live" TV Show, used to do a sketch every couple of weeks in which she made completely ridiculous arguments. One night she argued vehemently against the "Deaf Penalty", instead of the "Death Penalty". She looked absurd, which was the point, and we all laughed until the beer came out our noses, which was what she wanted. You don't want people to laugh at you.

In a serious debate, you should understand the other side. Note that I didn't say "Believe". Understanding is not the same as believing. If you were to study 20th century European Political history, you would have to understand several forms of government: communism (the USSR), fascism (Germany, Italy), socialism (Lots of countries), socialist democracy, capitalistic democracy and constitutional monarchy. You would not believe in all of them; you could not believe in all of them at once. If you tried, your head would explode. You would, however, have to understand their basic concepts.

If you were to study comparative religion, you would have to understand what Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Taoists and Confucians believe. You would not have to convert to a new religion every week, but you would have to understand the other ones. You would not get very far in your studies if you dismissed all the other ones as "wrong". They believe their path is the right one just as strongly as you believe your path is the right one.

99% of the biologists alive today believe that species evolve, and that the theory of evolution is the best explanation we have for the diversity of life. Christian biologists, Jewish biologists, Muslim biologists, Hindu biologists, Buddhist biologists; Australian, Bolivian and Chinese biologists; 99% of them believe it is the best explanation. Yes, it is only a theory. Planetary motion - the theory that the earth went around the sun, not vice versa - was only a theory for a long time. Some people still don't believe it. Their eyes tell them differently.

Species don't evolve at the same rate and they don't all have to evolve. Alligators, to take one example, haven't changed much for 40 million years. The ones that were 50 feet long have become extinct, but the normal 14-footers are still there in the swamps, hoping men don't shoot them to use their hides for shoes. They didn't have to worry about that 3 million years ago. We humans are at the top of the heap today, either because we evolved or God liked us better than He did the alligators. Either way, we can make tools better than any other species.

Your question has been answered, hundreds of times, by people more versed in biology than I. It gets answered ever week here at YA.

If you are truly curious, ask your minister to give you a short, reasoned explanation of evolution. If he says he can't because it is wrong, he is as ignorant as those monarchists I mentiond above.

Answer 4

It is very simple, it was because a population of monkeys bred isolated from the parent population. While the isolated population was evolving into the new super monkey, Homo, the parent population evolved on it's own, parallel.

Answer 5

We did not evolve from apes.
Nor did we evolve from an alleged common ancestor, which for all intents and purposes one might as well label an ape.

Humans are completely different to apes. There is no evidence whatsoever to support the claim that we evolved from anything. All hominid fossils are either clearly ape or clearly human.

Unfortunately a lot of paleontologists have fanciful imaginations, constructing semi humans from nothing more than bone fragments.

The model of Lucy in the Natural History museum in London displays her with human like hands and feet. She was found with no hands and feet. But other australopithecine fossils have been found with ape-like hands and feet. one wonders why the NHM continues to display their grossly misleading display. I suppose this temple to the religion of evolution can be expected to do nothing less :(

Answer 6

as said before, we evolved from a similar ancestor: specifically, prehistoric prosimians. This species no longer exists today.

However, monkeys are alive today, and it would be silly to say that monkeys don't resemble prosimians more than we do. monkeys are the normal ones: they evolved a little, got a little bigger, got a little better with their hands, and survived in a simple manner.

though humans evolved from the same ancestor, their evolution was relatively fast and treacherous. first, humans ran out of food in the trees, so they evolved to find food on the ground. then, they ran out of nuts and berries, so they evolved to eat meat. then, they had to compete with other animals for meat, so they evolved to walk upright in order to see over tall grasses and free their hands for tool-making.

then things started to get really hairy: they ran out of meat. there was really no food left at all. Normally, this is when a species goes extinct, but that's what made humans special. all the trials in their biological past had made their brains so large that they avoided their own extinction. How'd they do it? Murder. Those with nothing to lose used their tools to get the food and mates they needed by force. This is the point when human evolution really accelerates: the capacity for murder ensured that only the smartest humans were able to survive.

So that went on for a while, but eventually there was no meat at all. Begrudgingly, humans developed farming, and again avoided extinction. early farming life was awful: poor diet (this being when we evolved to eat grain), disease, and long working hours. but it was their only choice. the first cities began to form shortly after.

that's human evolution in a page. hope you read it! the more people that understand this stuff, the better we are...

Answer 7

Sorry mate but tell me one respectable scientist, only one, who claims we evolved from monkeys as I have looked for one and they ain't.

We both evolved from a common ancestor - neither a monkey or a human. We both evolved together to fill different ecological niches. In plain English, we both evolved to survive in different situations.

Just because we are more intelligent does not mean we evolved "better"; a common misconception is that we consider ourselves smarter than an organism WE MUST have evolved from that organism.

Evolution and the process leading to extinction are mechanical processes; they do not care for intelligence or strength but the ability to survive and reproduce and for your offspring to do this successfully and so on and so on... If intelligence and strength aid the organism's survival then great but think of this - it is estimated there is more bacteria on your person than every person that has lived or is living...

Answer 8

If the Americas were populated by Europeans; why are there still Europeans? I could go into this question in depth, but then you would not get the pleasure of educating your self. Go here.

http://www.talkorigins.org

Answer 9

You could call them degenerates, but that would not be right.

They have not evolved to be humans and build nuclear missiles and machine guns and poison gas.

Answer 10

One branch stayed monkeys and another branch got a bit cleverer.