If we are evolved monkeys, why are there still monkeys, and where are the other unevolved creatures?

Question

Where are the relatives to dogs, cats, bunnies, and al lthe otehr animals who have evolved? we still have monkeys but no other relative to any otehr creature, why?

Excuse me..not monkeys..PRIMATES, otherwise known as MONKEYS..apes, gorillas, whatever..

Im glad I have such an educated bunch answering this question, Im alittle shocked to see so many who call me uneducated, Primate-Any member of the group of intelligent mammals that include humans, monkeys and apes..that definition says that I am related to a monkey, which means I would have had to evolve from one!!..

Answer 1

Its a THEORY - one of which i am a skeptic of. When i see the evolutionary link - an absolute, physical, scientifically proven, missing evolutionary link - then call me a believer. Until then, as far as i am concerned - i did not evolve from a monkey.

But to answer your question, animals branch outward when they evolve. For example, if animal X evolves into animal Y then, that does not suggest that all X animals will become Y animals. Some X animals will stay X animals while others will evolve to Y animals and then eventually, Z animals. Like....Pokemon - sort of.

Answer 2

All plant and animal evolutionary lines aren't actually lines but more like trees where one type of animal can evolve into hundreds of different animals over millions of years. The same is true for primates. All primates decended from one common ancestor which, through millions of years of evolution, evolved into all the primates we see today including humans. This is why there are still monkeys today. Also, some animals are perfectly adapted to their surroundings so they don't evolve as quick as a species of animal that are exposed to a new environment. This is why many sharks haven't changed their shapes much since the time of the dinosaurs. Their body shape and structure is very well suited for their environments. Humans have changed their body shapes and mental capability, (through evolution), alot since they split from the common primate anscestor we share with chimps. This is because the environments some of these early pre-human anscestors were exposed to were changing as they either moved into new areas of the world, or global climate change changed the environment around them. Much of the african jungles dried up and so our primate anscestors, (that didn't live in parts of africa that still had jungles), had to adapt to a life of savanas and desert lands. Walking upright is an advantage for primates in this sort of environment for numerous reasons. Less sun on the back, you can see further, and you can carry things in your hands. This is how the human gene line split from other primates.

As far as the other animals go, we can trace their lineages through DNA, fossil records, and through other living animals. Just do a little research and try to stay open minded. Evolution is an awsome fact of nature!

Answer 3

Well, relatively speaking, if monkeys didn't look like humans or humans like monkeys there wouldn't be a theory of evolving. But a better question is: If we evolved from a common ancestor then why are there so many different types of primates? And why would "natural selection" allow this to happen? Primates hold no place in the natural world, where, without them the system would break down.

Answer 4

Err...have you ever been to a zoo? There are all kinds of relatives of cats, dogs, bunnies etc. What the heck are you talking about. There are 36 cat species alone.

All species are equally evolved right not. Evolution makes no judgments of what is best. It only favors survival. It doesn't go in a straight line, but branches like a tree. A species could fit in fine in one niche and go in a very different direction in another environment. So there is "more evolved" because if the climate changes dramatically (as happens at times) your species might have been doing great, and suddenly you aren't.

Humans almost died out completely about 75,000 years ago. It was fortunate the climate changed. If this had happened we certainly wouldn't have been the best suited.

Answer 5

We didn't evolve from monkeys. A million years ago, there weren't the monkeys, people, dogs, cats etc that you see today. There where ancestors of these animals. Humans are members of the primate family, just as lions are members of the cat family.

Answer 6

*drink*

You really should get your facts straight. We share a common ancestor with apes (the ones without tails) and that ancestor shared an ancestor with monkeys. Monkeys are an evolved version of that ancestor, just as many other creatures have evolved from various other creatures. Some creatures are fairly well adapted, so they have not evolved much.

Answer 7

It never fails.

We didn't evolve from monkeys. We are apes, we share a common ancestor with the rest of the modern great apes. We evolved along side of the rest of the modern apes.

Are you kidding? You really cant think of any relatives to dogs, cats and bunnies?

Answer 8

Once again, the youth of our great nation are ill-informed, under-educated and have no common sense. Perhaps you should spend some time learning about evolution before mouthing off such retarded non-sense.

For instance this would be like me saying "if God made man from dirt, then why is there still dirt?" Seems like a retarded question eh?

Answer 9

In the study of evolutionary biology, there is no such concept as an "unevolved species." Every species adapts to its own ecological niche due to processes of natural selection. Sometimes the traits that serve one species well in one niche serendipitously serve as a preadaption to another niche. For instance, we know from studies of molecular genetics that feathers first evolved in some dinosaurs (Maniraptorans) so they could keep warm. The aerodynamic properties of the feathers were a serendipitous preadaptation for descendant species.

Follow up. Humans are in the order primates. So why are there other species of primates? Because the evolutionary process known as speciation works to fill all niches. In other words, you could be asking why are there 2000 other species of passerine birds when there are sparrows!!!

Answer 10

We are in the primate order. All 'cousins' which would include apes and monkeys are endpoints of their respective branches of evolution, just as we are of ours. They are no more or less evolved; evolution optimises each species to their environment. It doesn't aim for intelligence or anything, there is no conscious design.

Dogs are related to wolves if you recall (and both dogs and wolves still exist), cats are in a very large family of their own, and we all are in the superfamily MAMMALS, which means that if you go far enough back, we are all related. DNA, behaviors, the proof is there.

Answer 11

we are all here. In the here and now of today--we represent the creatures which fill the various biological niches the world has to offer--We are both the evolved creature in the here and now, that natured designed to fit our biological niches--we are also the unevolved creature relative to the future--if we are in a biological niche that becomes stressed down the road--we will change--or die out as a species. We are both as one would expect.