If we evolved from apes how come apes are still around and haven't evolved into humans yet?

Answer 1

Well, for starters; we didn't evolve from Apes. WE are more closely related to Chimps actually. 98ish% of our DNA is the same.

Evolution works on a simple principal: mistakes. DNA copies itself millions of times and make the occasional mistake. IF the mistake makes the creature successful; it breeds and passes on that mistake. If not for those mistakes, bacteria would not have even evolved. We'd be chains of proteins and amino acids.

Since multiple things might work; different species emerge from one. So the first creature to develop an opposable thumb had an advantage, and the thumb changed and became more useful to do certain things, and more species emerge.

If you want evidence for evolution on a tiny, short-term scale (50,000 years or so is small in evolutionary terms). Look at races of people- dark skin is the original color! As people moved out of africa; it was advantageous for the group to have lighter skin. So the further you went away from the equator, the lighter skinned the people, because that trait was even more heavily selected. Meaning that we white people are the mutants, the freaks, and if you believe in divine creation- we are not in God's original form of mankind. The Africans are. For it is that area where the first people were. God's chosen people, the Jews are olive-skinned for the most part; it is those who fled further away and interbred who are lighter.

And you also have to remember when randomly making mistakes, how often do you make the same one twice? Think of the lottery: there are only a few choices. Once chromosome has millions of genes, which has millions of DNA molecules. Its already a 1 in 1,000,000,000,000 chance of something happening once on that level- what's the odds it will happen exactly the same again?

Answer 2

For those that say we didn't evolve from apes but a common ancestor are ignorant of the facts. We and chimps evolved from acommon ancestor that was an ape. We have a common ancestor with gorillas that goes back a couple million years before the chimp common ancestor and that was an ape too. We have a common ancestor with an orangutan that goes back even further and yes that was an ape too. There are ape ancestors before that.

If you really want to know and are not just repeating something to push a religious ideology, the reason is that there are different niches available. Chimps for example live in a forested environment. They have great strength and mobility and are far better adapted to that environment than are humans. If a niche is available and an animal has the ability to move into it, it will tend to evolve characteristics that make it ideal for that particular niche. In this way, changing environments, migration, and numerous niches has led to a wide variety of animals and even a wide variety of animals closely related to us. Those that were very closely related have mostly been long exterminated by humans due the competition which our ancestors probably could not tolerate.

Answer 3

This question has been asked hundreds of times before!

For one thing, we ARE apes - I'm 98% chimp and proud of it!

There is no 'direction' to evolution, no pressure for apes to evolve into anything other than more efficient apes!

The idea that evolution is a route leading to human beings as the ultimate 'goal' is a common misconception and often exploited by creationists. It does not work like that at all.

We did not evolve from modern apes. We share a common ancestor with them. Our ape-like ancestor was also their human-like ancestor!

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Answer 4

It's all a social experiment devised by the Gods, the objective being to see who survives the longest.

Will this be Apes who have been provided with nothing but a small brain that can work only with the tools that nature provides, or Humans who have been provided with a much more complex brain capable of inventing and making new tools by scientific methods as and when they see fit.

Up until recently (the last million years or so), humans were winning, but that situation has begun to change as Humans have started to develop methods for destroying each other on mass.

Answer 5

Because we didn't evolve from apes. Apes & humans evolved from a common ancestor who existed millions upon millions of years ago.

Answer 6

We didn't evolve from apes, we both evolved from something else, and are both still evolving. Apes will never evolve into humans because they've taken a different evolutionary path, they'll evolve into something similar though.

Answer 7

I am a human being, I did not evolve from any other being. No ape , no monkey, gorilla, or chimpanzee, no homo erectus, pithicanthropus or otherwise, no homo halibus or nutcracker man, I am of the species Homo sapien, and I evolve only as a Homo sapien for as long as i remain on earth. This I believe and no one can tell me different without proof. Theories and assumptions are not enough in my book. All you Darwin drum beaters should take a look at the book, his theory of "The Origin of the Species" and that is exactly what it was, "a theory" He acknowledged, that there were a lot of questions to be answered as regards the fossil record but he again assumed that the answers would be forthcoming in later years, but to this very day they have never materialized. I note someone above me, Esta B has said that Darwin became a Christian before he died, I just wonder if it had anything to do with his belief in what he had written.

Answer 8

We evolved not from all apes, but from one specific apebranch. Apes of that kind are not 'still around' as they evolved into humans. Apes of other kinds didn't evolve into humans, so they're still around :^)

Answer 9

There are still many species of primate.

Current theory is back in the mists of time one species got a bit smarter than the rest, and so evolved into us.

Read up on the "Aquatic Ape" theory, which makes for interesting reading and puts forward plausible theories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquatic_ape_hypothesis

Answer 10

both apes and humans evolved from an common ancestor