why did we Evolve!!!?

Question

If humans evolved from monkey's/apes, why are they still here?

Answer 1

Pretty much all the answers are pretty much correct. The two main points:

1. To state the humans and monkeys/apes share a common ancestor is NOT the same as saying the humans evolved "from" monkeys/apes. People who understand the theory of evolution talk about common ancestry, not about one species evolving "from" another existing species.

2. Evolution is not a chain (one species always *replacing* its ancestor). People who understand evolution understand that life is a constantly *BRANCHING* tree. Our common ancestor with the apes split into two branches ... one evolved to become humans, the other continued to evolve to become the other apes. Why do species BRANCH? Because populations of a species can get isolated from each other for long enough time that they lose the ability to interbreed ... thus one species has BRANCHED into two species, that are then forever destined to evolve in *very* different ways ... the longer the time from the split, the less they resemble each other ... although they will still carry tell-tale signs in their DNA of exactly how long ago the split occurred.

But to this I'll add a third point:

3. It is a mistake to say that apes/monkeys are NOT evolving. They are not somehow halted in some frozen state of evolution that has not changed since we split from them. They are not some sort of 'unevolved humans'. They are fully evolved apes. Every bit as evolved, as adapted, for their environment as we are to ours.

Apes are NOT 'unevolved humans.'

Answer 2

You ask a very good question, "Why did we Evolve?" The answer if far more complex than we shared a common ancestor with the apes and monkeys, or even the lowest creatures at the base of the tree of life. The reason that any life evolved at all, and the reason that there exist a universe that supports biological life, stems from the nature and physics behind the singularity, the big-bang, and of quantum mechanical effects. This particular universe just happen to unfold in such a way that it provide the minimal structural dimensions, 3, plus a dimension of time. A minimum of 3 (X,Y,Z) dimensions and 1 of time were absolutely necessary for any life to have gotten its start and evolved. Thus, this universe met the minimum requirement to start and sustain life and its evolutionary process.

Answer 3

pls get your facts right.. humans did not evolve from monkeys and apes. Humans are merely thought to share a common ancestor with monkeys and apes.

secondly, even if humans had evolved from monkeys and apes, it would not preclude monkeys and apes from also being around at the same time. You've jumbled speciation and extinction together when it is not necessarily so. Species only go extinct when they can no longer survive in the environment that they are in. Not just because they have moved down separate evolutionary paths.

if that were so then we would only see one species of everything alive today, when in fact we see multiple types of species from the same family.

Answer 4

We didn't. We evolved from a common ancestor we share with apes. It's like asking "if early christians were formerly jews, why are there still jews?"

About 7 million years ago a population of our ancestors became divided into two, possibly by a barrier such as the African Rift Valley or possibly because some adopted a new behaviour such as early bipedalism which resulted in one group not interbreeding with the other. A species is simply a group of living things that does not interbreed with another *even though it is biologically capable of doing so*. The formation of two species from one in this way is called "speciation".

One population evolved into early human species, the other into the precursors of modern-day apes.

Answer 5

Human beings did not evolve from monkeys or apes. We all evolved: people, monkeys, apes, and all other animals, along different lines from earlier animals.

Living things are very prolific, and evolution is a very gradual process that involves minute changes from one generation to another. Specific individuals and populations will express different degrees of progress at different times: some will be more changed from their ancestors and some less so at a given moment in time.

People frequently speak of species being "more evolved" or "less evolved" than others at a given time. This is not good thinking. People are not "more evolved" than fish, for example. The world is simply made up of what is here on the given day.

EDIT: Good point about wolves and dogs. Doggie is looking over my shoulder as I read, and she adds the comment that the wolf of today and she and her litter mates evolved along different, though similar, lines from an earlier wolf or wolf/dog/thing animal. Today's wolf is not quite the same wolf as the one that she evolved from and the wolf evolved from. Same for monkeys.

She recommends this web site:

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evohome.html

And she says, "You bet your tail I have evolved. How many doggies before gave answers on Yahoo!Answers?"

Answer 6

This question appears daily. Makes some of wonder. What and how did the educational system of America fail all these people?

Higher primates, humans, apes, chimps, have a common ancestor. There are several examples. A recent discovery made in Asia is one. Lets face it folks, good hard data, fossil proof and DNA similarities are a lot more convincing than a few words from a mythical text.

The greatest thing that the religious folks and Creationist have in their favor is ignorance. Unfortunately, in regards to biology and evolution they seem to be obtain some degree of success. There seems to be a general dumbing down in the primary educational system in America.

Human Evolution
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/evolution/

Fossil Hominids
The Evidence for Human Evolution
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/

Human Evolution 3D
http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/projects/human/

What is human evolution?
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/biology/humanevolution/

Answer 7

> why did we evolve?
Our ancestors got isolated, and had different selection pressures on them than the main population... repeatedly.

> If humans evolved from monkey's/apes, why are they still here?
If Christians evolved from Jews, why are Jews still here?
If Australians and Americans evolved from Europeans, why are Europeans still here?

Again, think... isolation, different environment, different selection pressures.

Answer 8

The theory is that when the climate changed East of the Rift Valley in Africa, the rain forest started to change into a savanna, and the primates had to adapt to live and hunt in the open spaces between the sparse trees. Where the dense forests stayed in Africa and Southern Asia, primates stayed too. Modern humans only returned to the forests when forced by other, stronger or better adapted groups.

Answer 9

If dogs evolved from wolves, which we know they did, (because humans did the breeding to domesticate dogs) then why are wolves still here?

The presence of wolves in no way makes it impossible that dogs are evolved from wolves. Your Sunday School teachers are not as smart as scientists. You would be well served to stop listening to your Sunday school teachers and start listening to your science teachers.

Answer 10

We didn't. It has also been pointed out that we evolved from an amphibian, but....hmmmm, they are still around, too. Curious. But, wait, no one ever said that IF one specie evolved from another that the original specie might not be perpetuated!

Look, the THEORY is that humans and apes had a common ancestor somewhere back down the line. There is no proof. And creationists would argue that is absurd. But there is also no proof that creationist THEORY is any more correct than evolution THEORY.

Why even be concerned with it anyway? Move on! Tackle something that has some meaninful impact on our existence.