If humans morphed from ape-like creatures, then why are there still apes?

Question

How come they don't morph into humans?

Answer 1

For example, geographical isolation can separate a population into two separate groups. With enough time and variation they become two different species. That's how there can exist both humans and our nonhuman primate ancestors. We didn't just come from the birth canal of a chimpanzee.

Say, you and a group of friends get stranded on an island. You have lost all contact (interbreeding) with the rest of the human population and over thousands and thousands of years your little population becomes so different from us (small gene pool, etc) that you become a different species. Everyone else on the mainland would not have to "morph" into your species for us both to exist.


And on previous remarks...
There is no intended direction of evolution. Apes are no less evolved than we are. Evolution is simply defined as a change in gene frequency in a population over time. Evolution does not think in the future and we will never be "perfectly evolved."

Answer 2

It is commonplace saying that man evolved from apes. Actually, man *is* an ape. We are a particular species of apes, belonging to the sub-family of the African great apes, which includes chimpanzees and gorillas.
They are not our ancestors, they are our cousins. Therefore, the correct statement is not that man morphed from apes but that man and the other apes share a common ancestor which is no longer alive today.

Try to think to your question in this perspective. Probably it can be reworded more or less into this: "is it possible that today's apes evolve into humans in the future?"

The answer is no. The reason is that the "design space" of all living forms is so vast that it is ridiculously improbable that two different animals (our ancestor apes and today's apes) can ever evolve into the same animal (homo sapiens). Evolution always works in differentiation, never in convergence.

The concept of design space is a mathematical way to visualize the relative position of a species within all the other species. Imagine to list all parameters that serve for constructing our body (these parameters are embedded in our DNA). This list would contain billions of elements. Each parameter counts for a coordinate of the design space, so we have a multi-dimensional space with a huge number of dimensions. A species is a point (or better, a small region) inside this space. Note that most of the space is empty because only a few parameter combinations lead to life form, others are nonsense.
Through Darwinian evolution, a starting point (species) moves slowly and randomly in the space until it reaches another point (a new species).
In this framework, your question is formulated as: is it possible that two different points A and B can move, along random trajectories, into the same point C? You can figure out that, since the space is vast (and I mean, vast beyond any imagination), although the mere possibility exists, its probability is in fact negligible for any practical estimation.

Answer 3

If invertebrates morphed into vertebrates, why do clams and worms still exist? Why did Darwin find so many different finches in the Galapagos? Why are there so many different species of sparrows, and how come I can't tell them apart when I go on bird walks? And what about all those beetles?

The answer is natural selection, which is not a drive to some sort of pre-ordained perfection, but a consequence of more successful reproduction by some individuals and not others.

The great apes--including humans--had a common ancestor that may have lived about 15 million years ago. The descendents of that common ancestor evolved to fit different environmental niches. Humans may have split off only about six million years ago.

There's more to it than that, of course. I hope this gets you started.

Answer 4

Humans weren't apes long ago; both humans and modern apes evolved (not "morphed") from a common ape-like ancestor. Humans have evolved, and ape species have evolved as well; it's not as if the hominid line broke off from apes millions of years ago and apes just remained the same. Modern ape lines and the human line both diverged from that of a common ape-like ancestor that lived in Africa millions of years ago and is now extinct. Other apes have not remained the same either. They have changed and speciated as well, and many species of ape and hominid (bipedal human ancestor species) have gone extinct.

How come modern apes "don't morph into humans"? Because morphing is something that only happens in movies and on TV, not in biology.

Answer 5

We evolved from a common ancestor, not apes, per ce. The idea is that there was a major climate change on (what is now) the African continent, several million years ago, resulting in fewer forest areas, and increasing areas of grassland. Our ancestors, because of environmental pressures (specifically, a shrinking habitat) moved out of the trees and onto the grassy plains, and slowly they adapted; traits that favored the ability to stand upright were selected, as this was useful in avoiding predators in such an environment (tall grasses). The ancestors of apes stayed in the trees, changing little, and became what they are today.
So, in short, the answer to your question is that, though there was a common ancestor, the two groups diverged millions of years ago, leading to the different species we have today.

Answer 6

If dogs morphed from wolves why are there still wolves? New species don't eliminate old species unless they are competing for the same food. Only one wolf was needed to create all dogs. And only one ape like creature was needed to give rise to man. Another ape like creature gave rise to chimpanzees and another to gorillas etc. All modern primates have evolved along with man to become what they are today. The modern day primates are not our ancestors but we do share a common ancestor if you go back far enough.

Answer 7

If Christians and Muslims came from Jews, why are there still Jews?
If there is something I don't understand about Islam, does that mean that all religion is incorrect. If I point out a contradictory statement in the Bible, does that mean all of Christianity is wrong?
No, it just means that these religions do not need me to believe in them to exist. Similarly, the fact that you do not understand evolution (it certainly is not morphing) does not mean that evolution is not true. It is, however the most plausible explanation we have of the origins of life.

I give you a quote -

“new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory. ”

It was made by Pope John Paul II in 1996.
He was remarkably intelligent and well read, and religious.
He understood evolution.

Answer 8

I believe in evolution. I believe humans and apes have a common ancestor. No, we are not the same as apes. Some people may not understand evolution, and henceforth may not believe in it. I believe we should use our power of reasoning when deciding whether to believe something or not.

I think Labsci made some good points.

Answer 9

We came from a common ancestor. The Great Apes evolved their own way.

Answer 10

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If there were trees 800,000 years ago why
are their toothpicks and we still got trees?
Shouldn't the other trees be beaver board
or paperback novels?

If early pioneers all went out West then
why da heck is anyone on the Eastern
Seaboard?

If tadpoles all turn into frogs why are
there still tadpoles?

If lizards aren't all chameleons, how do
some turn red, and why do they always
change back?


If your kitty-kat is not related to a cheetah
or a leopard, why does it always look at
the TV that way when it sees or hears one?



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