If Evolution is true, and man did evolve from monkeys, why don't monkeys evolve into humans today?

Question

If Evolution is true, and man did evolve from monkeys, why don't monkeys evolve into humans today?

Answer 1

American education at its best.

Answer 2

I think it is more like mankind and apes (not really monkeys) had a common ancestor. This ancestor gave rise to both humans and modern apes. Modern apes spun off and went down a slightly different evolutionary path than did humans. But both humans and apes are said to come from a common ancestor.

'Why don't monkeys(apes) evolve into humans today' is a misleading question. Evolution takes millions of years to occur. So it is unreasonable to expect that I could go to sleep tonight and wake up tomorrow into a world where apes are building cities and speaking English. That just won't happen.

Your question also assumes the same evolutionary pressures are around today that were around millions of years ago. I don't see any mastodons outside my window or sabertooth cats (thankfully no sabertooths) so that is quite a stretch. So since the same evolutionary pressures aren't around today as they were when humans were evolving, then it is reasonable to assume that you are going to get different results. That is to say that monkeys that are living today probably won't evolve into humans since the evolutionary pressures are radically different.

Answer 3

because it happened over millions of years

Answer 4

If you are really interested in the processes involved in evolution, please,  go to the library and find a publication that is written in a style that most uninformed yet interested people can understand.

Open your mind.  Try not to think in a linear fashion. Understand that  a species ability for environmental  adaptation, and specialization is required for the process of evolution to continue. I have no idea why so many people are so threatened by the idea that 100's of 1000's of years ago, primates and humans shared a common ancestor.  Does it make sense to you that you will be a common ancestor to the future, evolutionary representative of our species?

Answer 5

Humans and monkeys have the same common ancestor. Humans did NOT evolve from monkeys!

Well said, Zeb!

Answer 6

Perhaps some are becoming more human-like today...but very slowly!

And only if being human, means being more successfully adapted to live on earth, because it is the earth that's alive, moreso than the various species contained on it...

If you have an Albino child, which is a variation of you, yet a successful mutation from you, does that mean that all of the subsequent children you may have MUST also be Albino? As well as everyone else that has children?

No...

Answer 7

If evolution were true, then Rosie O'Donnell should evolve into something else.

Answer 8

That niche is already occupied.

Answer 9

You are assuming that human is the ultimate end in evolution and all species should try and be human.

Answer 10

Common misconception - we did not evolve from monkeys. We have a common ancestor. So no monkey is going to evolve into a human any time soon.

Answer 11

Monkeys are currently being threatened extinction. If monkeys did become extinct and humans still survived then the evolution of monkeys to humans would be complete. Survival of the fitist is the main mechanism of evolution, weaker less adaptable species die out as animals born with slight mutations that are benificial survive and reproduce. Humans came from a long generation of monkeys that had serendeptuously been born with mutations that benifited adaptibility and mated with other monkeys with slight mutations in their genes that also benefitted their survival. However there are still monkeys left because the evolutionary process is not complete and there are still breeds of monkeys that have not passed human like genes but survived by taking a different direction in the crossroads of evolution.

Answer 12

I think monkeys and man are both evolutuionary products that stemmed from the same line millions of years ago.