• Question: if we evolved from monkeys (apes) why are monkeys still around today??

    Asked by toxicity to Ed, Hayley, Jason, Nathan, Sophie on 21 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by juneoct2233.
    • Photo: Sophie Holles

      Sophie Holles answered on 21 Mar 2013:

      We didn’t exactly evolve from them but we share a common ancestor.. same for fish.. if you go back far enough we also share a common ancestor! So its more like we are great great great great cousins with apes than they are our great great great grandfathers. They are still around because they have evolved to be well adapted to the habitats they live in. One of the theories about why we evolved separately is that we started living in the grasslands instead of the forest, so we had to start walking upright and running fast.. so we had to evolve different adaptations.

    • Photo: Hayley Evers-King

      Hayley Evers-King answered on 21 Mar 2013:

      This is one of the most common questions I get from the students I teach here – they don’t like the idea that we came from monkeys very much! Luckily for them it is a myth, or at least a misunderstanding of evolution. As Sophie said, we share a common ancestor with monkeys/apes, as we do with all living things! If you go back far enough we all evolved from the very first lifeforms which came to be on the planet! We are quite closely related to monkeys and apes though, so our common ancestor would have probably been something quite similar to us both. Scientists have some contenders from the fossil record which might be our common ancestors. Here;s a fossil called Ida: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090519104643.htm

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