If humans evolved from apes...where did the minds come from intelligent enough to write?

Question

They had to make up their own language and write it down. If it was the apes who evolved..then there shouldn't be apes anymore..since they evolved already. There was no one to teach them or history books . Did they learn everything from pictures? When did organized language first start....and all the rules that went with language? I just can't imagine animals being this evolved. If it really did happen then why didn't dogs etc. evolve too? I guess I'm talking about the "missing link".

Answer 1

Animals can communicate with each other

this is then recorded in some form. i.e symbols which then become letters ===>word====>sentences

Dogs do communitcate. Things only seem to evolve to become better adapted to thier environment. dogs could possibly still evolve but it takes millions of years so the change is so small its hardly noticeable

Answer 2

Simian life forms (the collective term for all primates, not just apes) evolved from a common ancestor millions of years ago. About 6 million years ago, as the African savanna grew, one type of ape began live more on the ground than in trees. This ape eventually evolved over a very long time to our earliest ancestors - "Lucy" is believed to be one of the earliest known ancestors of our species, from about 4 million years ago. Understand that at the time, Lucy's species (Australopithecus) was not the same species as we are (Homo Sapiens). After Lucy's race there is some controversy. The proverbial missing link.

What we do have ample fossil evidence of is that over the course of 4 million years, a series of simian life forms. Different species often living together. We do not know what happened to the other hominid species (great apes, that died out). The only remaining ones are gorillias, chimps, baboons and us.

Some theories suggest that the other great apes died out because they became specialized. In terms of specialization and evolution its pretty much a death sentance for a species to become specialized. What that means is that they learn to be good at surviving one way but fail to adapt to surivive in different ways.

So sudden climate changes, natural disasters and natural selection mean any species that is a specialist in something may not be able to evolve to adapt and survive. Therefore, other hominid species likely failed to adapt as humans did. That doesn't mean they were not successful though. Humans have only been around for about 100,000 years (if you count cromagnons). Homo Erectus lived for over a million years, even longer.

Language

Language is a different matter altogether. Scientist have no idea when the first true languages developed. They do know that earlier hominids did not possess the same vocal cords as we do, so complex speech would not have been possible until about the time of cromagnon man.

As far as learning all the other things that we did - even a chimp can learn to count and mimic human behavior. Given that our ancestors lived for nearly 4-6 million years I think it stands to reason they were pretty adaptable. I think as our ancestors adapted to have larger brains capable of complex thoughts and ideas, the ability to observe nature and reason through logic and abstract thinking made learning things like math, language, art and so forth inevitable.

Answer 3

The common ancestor thing has been responded to in earlier replies.  I have read several things about the emergence of language and the modern brain, just in the last week or so I read an article in the Smithsonian about a theory that it was when modern man started eating more seafood, with it's high protein and omega 3 fatty acids, that fueled our outsized brains and allowed us as a species to make many advancements such as language.  I have also heard more controversial theories about our animal ancestors eating psychedelic mushrooms, and that changing our brains, but that might just have been hippie talk.  As for the missing link, since we didn't evolve from apes, but rather have a common ancestor, there is no "missing link" between apes and man.  As for the ancestors of humans, they have found a dozen or so, neanderthals, homo erectus, the austrolopithicines, etc.  Dogs evolved as well, or rather to say, wolves became dogs(although they are still the same species).  Dogs didn't exist 20,000 years ago.

Answer 4

Apes are our distant cousin.  We descend from one ape and they split off into branches.  The apes we see now are not the same that we evolved from.

Answer 5

Oh my god. I love answering your stupid questions. Okay, humans are from a ancestor than chimps. They are our "cousins" not our "parents" or "great, great, great...grandparents" At on point the chain leading and the chain leading to chimps split and we evolved in a completely different direction. It is a common misconception that humans descended directly from monkey. Organized language probably started with the very first humans. It isn't too hard for humans to learn a language early on. (1 year old?) Perhaps our latest ancestor had organized language. (a series of grunts etc.) And since languages change anyways, why wouldn't they eventually decide to sit down and create a set of rules for it. Alot of indian tribes had NO written language whatsoever. What makes you think that they wouldn't have developed one given enough time. Why didn't dogs evolve too? Because this their current evolutionary state? Their ancestor's brains weren't as our large-minded ancestors evolved faster. Chimpanzees can learn sign language. What makes you think that they can't learn a spoken or written language? (apart from their obvious lack of our advanced vocal chords) There are probably several "missing links." But when you said the thing about dogs, I actually laughed out loud. They aren't even in the same genus as we are! Good thinking! (not)  <=P

Once again, thank you for giving me some entertainment!

Answer 6

wtf lol only god gave you a mind to think and etc.

(not freakin apes) or whatever ur tryin to say ha

Answer 7

Humans didn't evolve from apes.  We share a common ancestor who is now extinct about 6 million years ago. We have each followed our own evolutionary path.  Animals have some very complex ways of communicating with each other, though none have ever develope what we would call speech or grammar.  It isn't known how long it took humans to do this.

Human brains are much larger than chimpanzees. They are our nearest relative sharing 98% of the same DNA.  Humans have evolved a capacity for language and abstract thought that is probably unique in the animal kingdom, but it didn't happen in one step, but through a series of incremental steps

Remember there is no goal or destination with evolution. The changes occur in response to selection pressure.  Clearly for humans, there was some survival benefit in communication and language, and those who had the better abilities survived to pass their genes on to the next generation.

Answer 8

We evolved because a change happened. It is important to remember that evolution is not a plan for creating a certain type of living thing. Evolution does not have a goal or an objective. And human evolution is like all other types of of animal evolution-as the environment changed, humans and their predecessors adapted to the new conditions. And evolution it is still going on today. It is only easier to see  change from the distance of thousand or millions of years.

One of the most important thing that got us to where we stand today, is our hands. It is the way we are constructed, and our intelligence. With out our hands it would almost be impossible to do many things, and we would probably not be "humans" at this present time. It is the way our bodies are formed. We invented our language by making sounds with stones, and playing, exploring "our" world. As we grew, or evolved, our brains grew bigger.

Animals are evolving today, and they have always have. Birds have changed TOO much over the past two hundred years.

They do not evolve like us because we have control, we are the creature who destroys everything. Their future, and ours, depends on our ideas, and our errors.

We say that "humans" have culture. And it is true. The culture we pass on to generations, it is what makes us stronger, and sometimes worst.

As humans continued to evolve, so did their skills. These skills include, tool - making, language, and basically everything you see today.

We are not sure when they started talking, but we do know that they had all these powerful skills, and started using fire about  1.4 million years ago. Fossil record shows some evidence that humans were using fire in Africa.

I think I answered all your questions, if you  have any other questions let me know.

Kevin H.

Answer 9

This is all based on your belief. If you are an evolutionist than this will make some since to you. If you believe in creation non of that will make since. I believe in creation and as the bible says God created man in HIS image (not monkey). Don't you think you made sense when you said " if it was the apes who evolved then there shouldn't be anymore.." If we were made from apes or our supposedly distant cousins then why aren't we still coming from apes? Why are we giving birth to human babies with intellect minds? Why aren't we giving birth to monkeys? Why aren't the monkeys giving birth to us? Why stop the process years ago of evolving from apes. Was it a certain year apes just stop giving birth to humans? Although the monkeys are fairly smart and are human like they don't have that intelligence that we are all capable of. Sometimes the evolution process just doesn't make sense. And it clearly knocks God out of the picture. So it's all in what you believe. But if it don't make sense to you use your common sense to find out what the answer can be. I do.

Answer 10

Nature  evolves as needed. We evolve from primates not precisely from an ape. Language is an innate  human capacity.

Answer 11

Its God he's the missing link. Evolution is just a theory of what could have happened to us after all no one saw us evolve, am I right (Yes I know a ton of people are going to say that God is also a theory)? So that is just a theory just like the theory that aliens colonized themselves here and we are decendents of aliens. If you really want proof look at our bodies there is no physical way for evolution to have made us into such complex organisims. Animals and us are different, because we have understanding and for us to think that we came from some sort of ape is ridiculous, because before the ape we came from dirt/rock, something doesn't add up here.

Answer 12

According to the evolution theory most accept we didn't evolve from apes per se but share a common ancestor with them in our past.   Apes are just another way of evolving along our primate lines.  Languages probably evolved when early man started acting in conjunction with other people (such as hunting, lookouts for danger, etc).  Languages evolve over time with new rules dialects etc being added in by people over the years.  Many scientist believe that brain evolution was due to hunting practices and increased diet of protein.  As far as learning early man learned just like most species on the planet by watching his parents and imitation.  With language development oral traditions and instructions started.  Then with the early pictographs on cave walls and other areas knowledge and events could be recorded for others.  If you go to a natural history museum and talk to a canine specialist you can see how dogs have changed throughout history.

Answer 13

you're thinking to in the now... dog's devolved because they were domesticated

Answer 14

But we didnt evolve from apes. We were created by the 1 god almighty. Eveloution is just a bunch of mutations, right. Mutations are a LOSS of information. Humans are more advanced than apes so we couldnt have evolved.