About evolution?

Question

If we supposedly evolved from primates, how come there are still non-human monkeys and apes to this day and they are not humans.

Answer 1

Because of *branching*.

Branching is when a single species branches or splits into two (or more) species.

Branching happens when two (or more) subpopulations of a species get isolated from each other. For example, climate change causes intermediate land to become uninhabitable, thus isolating several populations from each other. Other causes might be a large migration, a bad winter, a bad flood, a few bad famines causing population bottlenecks, a river cutting through a valley, continental drift, etc. etc. If that genetic isolation lasts long enough (hundreds of thousands of years in the case of animals as big as primate), then those subpopulations will lose the ability to interbreed, even if they do come into contact again. At that point they are separate *species* ... their genetic isolation is now guaranteed to be permanent, and they can then go on for millions of years more evolving in *completelty* different ways (different mutations, different environments).

So what appears (according to the fossil and DNA evidence) to have happened is that a common ancestor betwen the apes and the monkeys split into multiple species, some of which kept their tails (what we call monkeys), one branch lost its tail (and became the founder of the apes). Then this ape branch, itself branched again (the gibbons), and again (the orangutans), and again (the gorillas), and again (the chimps) and again until one branch went on to become what would become the human branch, which again branched into the Neanderthals and the Homo sapiens.

Meanwhile all those monkey branches continued evolving in very different ways, as did the ape branches that we branched from, as did the Neanderthal branch (which went extinct only about 23,000 years ago), as did humans.

None of the other monkeys or apes we see today are our ancestors. They are not "unevolved humans" somehow frozen in some early stage of human evolution ... they are fully evolved monkeys, or gibbons, or chimps or whatever ... every bit as much a result of millions of years of evolution as we are ... every bit as well adapted for their environment as we are.

There is absolutely no reason that all primates must become humans. Evolution is not a predetermined path. Just because we evolved in a certain way to be what we are, does not mean that *any* other animal must do the same.

All the other primates evolved in their own way to be what they are today.

Answer 2

1) According to evolutionists, Humans evolved from apes? Humans are apes by definition. Linnaeus classified us as such and he was a creationist. 2) There are many proven facts in science, but evolution is just a theory. False due to a misunderstanding of the word theory. A fact, in science, is a discrete point of information. Theories connect facts and explain them. There is no higher classification than theory. 3) A transitional form is a fossil of an animal that is part one species and part another. False. All organisms are transitional. 4) The age of the earth is determined by scientists solely through the radioactive dating of fossils ? The age of the Earth was determined by dating a meteor on the assumption that the Solar System was all the same age. All other calculations fit the age found. 5) The scientific method begins with a prediction and then looks for evidence to support that prediction? It begins with observation. Then a hypothesis is formed from that observation. After the hypothesis is formed, scientists look for evidence to support or falsify the hypothesis. 6) The theory of evolution includes the Big Bang? False. 7) To believe in evolution is to believe that life and matter came from nothing? False.

Answer 3

Because we were the mistake! Why wouldn't they still be around?

We understand what death/pain is, that others have it too. That's what we gained from this mistake. Unfortunately we also gained a way to put our self serving ways into practice, making us dangerous individuals. Possibly it will be the cause of us eventually going extinct too. We have an unfounded sense that our own individual 'born' peoples survival or desires are all important, at all costs. Even at the expense of other perfectly healthy species. We even murder our own healthy kind 'embryos/foetus' which we won't even recognise as our kin, until they reach about 22wks of existance. Knowing full well they are human the second sperm enters the egg. Are humans thick or what? Putting the interests of the minority (the sicks) interests above our species as a whole. We mess with biology too much & will some day cause our own demise.

Answer 4

Complicating stuff. It has to do with different branches of a species. Just like if there were a species of birds. They are separated by a large body of water so neither side can contact the other side. One side is rocky and desert like. The other is almost like a rainforest. One side evolves by the transformation of beaks better fitted to finding food in rocky places. The population on the side with the rainforest does not evolve in terms of beaks. So the question you are asking in terms of birds is: if the beaks of birds on the rocky side evolved from the birds from the rainforest side, how come there are still non-evolved birds to this day and they are not evolved. Therefore the birds can be catagorized as two separate classifications under the same family because one side branched off of the main population. Whew that was a mouth full lol.

Answer 5

Without writing too much... It doesn't mean that the monkeys turned into the humans, leading to an end of all monkeys. It means that at some point we and monkeys shared a common ancestor. Monkeys split off, as did our Australopithecus (an early hominid). Now A did not morph/turn into/become Homo habilus or whatever primitive form of man you choose. Again, a common ancestor was shared.

Answer 6

Branching, as described in an earlier answer, is the right answer.

To look at it another way, every species, every group of animals is evolving in a different way at different speeds to accomplish different goals due to different pressures.

Apes and monkeys today have evolved as well- just in different ways. Just as we are a million years more evolved than our ape-like ancestors, so are they a million years more evolved than theirs.

It is really interesting to look at our social evolution as well as our biological evolution. The most primitive monkeys live in small groups in close proximity to each other. They have little language and relationships between the group are well-defined- this guy is the alpha leader, this kid is the yong punk, etc.

As the group size and spacing increases, language gets more complicated. It is more and more important AND difficult to track the alpha male and your relationship to it. As group size continues to increase, you start seeing intrigue, politics, alliances within the group, etc.

By the time you get to baboons, you have large groups spread over huge areas and languages that are very comlex, as well as animals that have self-awareness, etc.

It very much looks like we are just the next step on this ladder.

Answer 7

All lifeforms, plant, animal and otherwise, continuously learn, adapt and evolve. Humans are just ahead of the pack in nervous system development and adaptative capabilities. Humans and other primates in one million years will look much different, if their species survives, than they do today because evolutionary changes will continue.

Answer 8

"new biochemical evidence indicated that the last common ancestor of hominids and apes occurred between 5 and 10 million years ago...
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/species.html

The Smithsonian Institution Human Origins Program
http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/

Human Evolution
http://www.ecotao.com/holism/huevo/

Answer 9

It's a valid question. Here's the answer:

Modern humans and modern great apes have a common ancestor. Both humans and chimpanzees evolved from a prehistoric hominid.

Answer 10

We called this diversity! We evolved into different branches to cover different ecosystems. Those have covered the ecosystem in living in the trees, and we have covered the open field ecosystem, and most of the rest after having reach a certain level in our evolution.