Evolution?

Question

If we evolved from apes, then why do they still exist? Why didn't all apes evolve?

Answer 1

Not all apes moved out into the savannah, where we evolved. Okay, I think there might be a couple of misconceptions here. First off, we are apes. The species we evolved from have been apes for a while now. However, we didn't evolve from modern apes. Modern chimps are no more our ancestors than my cousin Joey is mine. We're related, definitely, but that's because we share a common ancestor. That ape is extinct. That's a very common mistake, so I wanted to address it here.

Secondly, evolution isn't an orderly progression ending in wonderful us. We're not the apex of evolution, because evolution doesn't have direction. Devolving doesn't exist biologically, because complicated life-forms are not higher or more evolved than simple ones. Jeez, one species of bacteria manages more evolving in an afternoon than all the primates, combined, over a century.

Also, because it isn't an orderly progression, mother species don't automatically die off as soon as the daughter species has a good foothold in. One of the reasons that humans did split off from the chimp line is because one group of that early ancestor moved out of the trees and onto the savannah. Our brothers and sisters back in the trees continued to evolve because evolution never stops. Their population changed enough to become new species because, over the last 5.4 million years since we moved out, their environment changed plenty. It didn't have to be that way, and if there were fewer evolutionary pressures on them, it would've been entirely possible for our ancestors to continue hanging out in the trees in much the same form while we continued to adapt to our new environment and changed a lot. The new species only kills off the old one if they stay in the same area and in the same niche and the new one outcompetes the old one. Neanderthals might've died out just because we humans were just better at being the bipedal omnivores with big brains, complicated societies, and the ability to communicated than they were. We lived in an extremely similar way, hunting and gathering the same things, going after the same caves, but humans were just better at it. But, again, if we stayed in Africa and they moved to Asia, there'd be no reason for them to die out.

Answer 2

Please look in FAQ for Yahoo answers. This has been asked and answered to death.

However, because you likely won't do that - here's the answer. There are apes because of the same reason that you have cousins. One line goes one way, one the other. It's not a linear relationship. The apes of today are as highly evolved on their line as we are on ours. We're cousins, not direct linear descendants of each other.

We had a common ancestor and have diverged thru time. Your questions is sort of like asking - if I am alive, why do my cousins also exist? Or if there are Americans, why do the British still exist?

BTW ALL APES HAVE EVOLVED. They have evolved to what they are today and as is pretty obvious, they are all related - as we are to them.

Again, this may be useless, but I suggest you also hie thee to a library and read at LEAST one of the following:

Dawkins, Richard, 1986, The Blind Watchmaker, W. W. Norton & Company.

Dawkins, Richard, 1989, The Selfish Gene (2nd ed.), Oxford Univ. Press.

Dawkins, Richard, 1995, River Out of Eden, Basic Books

Dawkins, Richard, 2005, The Ancestor's Tale, Mariner Books

Gould, Stephen, 1980, The Panda's Thumb, W. W. Norton & Company

Ward, Peter D. 2006, Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth's Ancient Atmosphere John Henry Press

IWatson, James, 1968, The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, Atheneum

Weiner, Jonathan, 1994, The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time, Knopf

Answer 3

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 4

No part of evolution says we evolved from apes. You should have learned that in school. We share a common ancestor.

Answer 5

The theory never said we evolved from apes. All it said was we have a common ancestor.

Answer 6

You are thinking of Evolution as a straight line, one thing leading to another. If that were true, there would be no bacteria, no sea creatures, if one form leads to another.

Evolution is more like a tree. And We are closer related to Chimps than Apes actually. But we all share a common ancestor. For whatever reason, certain traits were selected and prospered in some areas; but not in others.

Dolphins once walked the land; but their ancestors started being in the ocean more, and thusly selected for more stream-line bodies, echo-location, etc.

In our cases, with a variety of trials (different species of hominids) Homo Sapiens came to dominate.

Answer 7

We have still yet to see any evidence of one species becoming another. Variations in the same species doesn't equate to evolution. For all we know at this stage is that those variations are preprogrammed in the DNA as possible variations. Mixing of DNA may make a new type of dog, but it is still a dog. So, even if a complex single cell organism managed to spontaneously form with perfect parts one time or even a thousand times, it wouldn't account for the wonderful variety of life here on Earth.

Evolution claims, random change & natural selection make simple things spontaneously transform into more complex things without recourse to intelligent design. Chance and random changes simply do not produce higher levels of organization & complexity.

Answer 8

We didn't evolve from apes!!!! We have a common ancestor.

Answer 9

If you were born of your parents, why do your parents still exist? Evolution is not progressive, directional and has no " evolution prize " at the end of the day, but reproductive success.
We and apes of today have a common ancestor which we branched off from quite a few years ago ( 7 million ) You are an ape, young lady; get used to it. Go here and learn truth.

http://www.talkorigins.org

http://www.aboutdarwin.com

Answer 10

HK, what do you mean it is "just a theory"? As opposed to what? Theory means just that we take all the various kinds of evidence and experience, weave it together with the ideas we already have, and propose new ideas that can better explain the evidence. Science does this in a highly formalized way that allows anybody else to attempt to reproduce and test the theory, but everybody, even small babies, are constantly making theories about their world that allow them to extend present experience to new situations. Without theories about what to expect in the world we would not even be able to get out of bed, not that we would have beds to get out of!

Fundamentalist religions in contrast begin with the assumption that they already know the truth, and instead of assuming that their theory of the world will change according to new evidence (and systematically looking for such evidence), they see everything as confirming, either positively or negatively, what they already believe. Oftentimes science itself is treated as a fundamentalist religion, not only by scientists who might see it more as technical tool rather than a form of inquiry, but, for example by decision makers who want to use it to justify making big dams that displace millions of people instead of building many locally controlled small hydropower projects, or as another example by big corporations that want to impose their own technology, for example genetic engineering, and justify it in terms of "science," while denying all counter claims as being non-scientific and thus of no value.

I will add that there are many hidden agendas in the anti-evolution movement, including, for example, overturning the endangered species protection act. If they can get enough people to turn against systematic thinking, and Christians form probably the biggest potential pool for this, they probably think that they will be able to get enough political support to do whatever they wish.

As others have said here, humans and apes share common ancestors, according to fossil, physiological and genetic evidence, and some scientists even think that we should also be classified as among the apes. Non-human apes have evolved as much as we have, but in other directions, and they continue to evolve as much as twice as fast as us humans, and there were also thousands of ape species which no longer exist. As far as the foot goes, it was a recent specialization that developed for walking. The hands that other primates as well as our ancestors have or had are more general adaptations originally developed for living arborally, or in trees. Our eyes with their sense of depth perception and color perception and pattern recognition, our highly refined ability to locate sounds, much of the character of our skeleton, our more generalized dentition, many of our social traits, etc. are also all thanks to our arboreal ancestry.