If we evolved from apes, then why are there still apes?

Question

If we evolved from apes, then why are there still apes?

Answer 1

The premise of the question is wrong. Humans did not evolve from apes, apes and humans share ancestors.

Each went their own way. Or, to put it more explicitly, there have been a number of splits in lineage containing apes and humans in the last 15-odd million years (the lineage containing apes and humans split from the lineages leading to monkeys much earlier):

One split separated the lineage leading to today's "lesser apes" (gibbons, etc.) from the lineage leading to today's "Great apes".

One split separated the lineage leading to today's orangutans from the lineage leading to today's African "Great Apes"

Another split separated the lineage leading to today's Gorillas from the lineage leading to today's Chimpanzees and Humans.

Finally, a further split separated the lineage leading to today's Chimpanzees from the lineage leading to today's Humans. (note here that some might add a further split between bonobos ["Pygmy Chimpanzees") and humans).  

Hominids were apes adapted to living in open savanna or broken woodlands, as opposed to all other apes, which live in forest/jungle.

As a result, hominids  adaptations inclucude:

Bipedal locomotion

Relatively larger, teeth, with thicker enamel, in order to eat the harder foods in the open environment.

One group of hominids, started scavenging meat, and using tools to a greater extent than the others, and this is the group that led to humans

A final observation: Our problem here is our lack of objectivity when we look at ourselves. An Extra-Terrestrial Zoologist would say that all the above are apes.

wl

Answer 2

That's a false belief. Many or few of the theories from the old century are proven incorrect.

Another sample would be why is the sky blue? On the old theory it is because of the reflection of the water from the ocean but it is not. Search for the: Rayleigh scattering.

Answer 3

We do not evolve from apes. Our 2 lines of dissent broke off about 2 million years ago. We went in 1 direction, Homo erectus, homo habilis....and the apes stayed apes.

Answer 4

nubs. evolution dosn't exist

Answer 5

Few of the apes refused to evolve and became creationists

Answer 6

Well, all land animals evolved from fish and there are still fish.  All life evolved from single celled organisms, yet there are still single celled organisms.  That should answer your question; if you think it through.

Answer 7

From the National Academy of Sciences:

"If humans evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

     Humans did not evolve from modern apes, but humans and modern apes shared a common ancestor, a species that no longer exists. Because we share a recent common ancestor with chimpanzees and gorillas, we have many anatomical, genetic, biochemical, and even behavioral similarities with these African great apes. We are less similar to the Asian apes--orangutans and gibbons--and even less similar to monkeys, because we share common ancestors with these groups in the more distant past.

     Evolution is a branching or splitting process in which populations split off from one another and gradually become different. As the two groups become isolated from each other, they stop sharing genes, and eventually genetic differences increase until members of the groups can no longer interbreed. At this point, they have become separate species. Through time, these two species might give rise to new species, and so on through millennia. "

http://www.nap.edu/html/creationism/appe...

Most likely, the split occurred as the savannas developed and population pressure drove some out of the forests. Both groups survived and developed but after thousands of generations became different species. There wasn't any need for a group to 'go away."

Answer 8

There has never been anything that evolved by itself.  Its like digging in the dirt and finding a Timex watch that is ticking. Then you have to come up with a theory of how it came to being without a maker. Yet a single cell amoeba has more activity going on in it than a large city, and more information in its DNA than a library full of books. How did all that happen without a maker? It is more believe able to explain that Timex watch than to explain the single cell coming to life by itself,  let alone man from apes. That evolving theory has not been tested or observed. It's junk science. The junk scientist have a mindset that it has to be anything but a creater when it comes to how life started.  Every comunist and n**i will disagree with what I wrote.

Answer 9

If you want to get a good feel for why it is actually good that we share the same ancester with apes, then see the great movie "Instinct" with Sean Connery.