I believe in the possibility of evolution however...?

Question

since all primates share a common ancestor is it possible that human evolution did not follow the paths of the apes and chimps before it branched into the line that eventually became human but followed a more direct path of evolution?

Answer 1

So you're asking if the human lineage branched from the ancestral primate line before that line branched into the apes? -sounds like the monkeys, lemurs, and tarsiers?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1935000/im...

The lineage - or evolutionary history - of any species is reflected in its genes. We share so much of our genome with the apes because we are apes. We are Anthropoid Primates in the family Hominidae (African apes and humans), subfamily Homininae (humans, genus Homo and all our extinct bipedal predecessors and cousins). The human genome varies less than 1 or 2% from the rest of our evolutionary cousins the Hominids (apes). If our line had branched earlier, the evidence would be in our genes.

Answer 2

Human evolution is a lot more complex than just saying we share a common ancestor with Apes.

Look at the Wikipedia article, especially the chart at the bottom:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolu...

We know a lot more than we knew 20 years ago, and we will understand much more 20 years from now. The study is an ongoing process with our knowledge building as we continue to study existing evidence, and as more evidence is uncovered.

Answer 3

No, not likely, the common ancestor means that we are descended from the same animal.  With chimps that is something about 5 or 6 million years ago. We are physically related to all other animals and life.  It goes back before primitive bacteria and should not be limited to monkeys and apes.  We share a common ancestor with a rutabaga .

Answer 4

Better to be from an ape than some other animals like the kangaroo.  We would be hopping around instead of walking.  Try to picture that.

Answer 5

Exactly when humans & chimps diverged from their common ancestor is still being researched. The "ticking clock" contained in the genome suggests 5 to 7 million years ago.  At least 20 lines of homonoids existed sometime in the past & modern ape ancestors produced more than that.  Most of these were evolutionary dead ends. Chance & environment played an important role in the evolution of both lines... the more specialized an animal became, the more suseptable it became to changes in the environment.  However the larger brain allowed the human line to seek better ways to survive & adapt to the changing environment. Meat eating is thought to have led to extra ordinary brain growth in what became Homo Sapien Sapien.

Answer 6

Yeah, I like that idea.

Answer 7

yes most certainly

Answer 8

I'm not sure what you mean.  Our line split off from the chimp line about 5.4 to 7.4 million years ago.  The evidence is pretty clear that we shared ancestors until then- there are fossils, there's DNA.  What would a more direct path be?  We wouldn't be anything like we are today if we weren't primates.  It's our primate ancestry that gave us our opposable thumbs, our social structure, our excellent 3D vision, our larger brains, our lengthy childhood and adolescence, and a host of other factors.  Just as every person in your family tree had an effect on their children, who passed those traits on down and eventually made you who you are today, each of our evolutionary ancestors gave us something that we still possess.