Evolution question...

**Imperator Romani** · June 16, 2009, 08:43 PM

Not trying to be a smarty pants or try to prove a point. I actually just randomly thought of this today when I was watching Discovery channel. If we came from monkeys like some believe, why are there still monkeys?

Surely they have had time to become us.

**mrcrusty** · June 16, 2009, 08:53 PM

We did not evolve from monkeys, we are related to monkeys (well, primates in general). We share the same ancestor.

Think of them like distant cousins or something.

At least that's how I understand it.

**Don in the North** · June 16, 2009, 08:53 PM

we share the same ancestor.
monkies are still around because their environment can still support them and they survive there with minimal 'modification' of their surroundings. They are also a versatile part of the food chain. They are 'perfect' in that sense for their environment and hence have survived through natural selection.

humans on the other hand, are notorious for modifying their environment (buildings, cutting down trees etc)

**Ragabash** · June 16, 2009, 08:55 PM

Originally Posted by PureInfantryWins

Not trying to be a smarty pants or try to prove a point. I actually just randomly thought of this today when I was watching Discovery channel. If we came from monkeys like some believe, why are there still monkeys?

Surely they have had time to become us.

Think it as a tree that creates new "branches" all the time, some of them die young, some of them continue to prosper just to grow new multiple "branches", repeating the cycle over and over again.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

The reason why apes exist along with humans is because we share common ancestors, not because we have developed from the same "branch".

**Imperator Romani** · June 16, 2009, 09:02 PM

Plus rep to all. Thanks

**Lumina** · June 16, 2009, 09:58 PM

Originally Posted by PureInfantryWins

Not trying to be a smarty pants or try to prove a point. I actually just randomly thought of this today when I was watching Discovery channel. If we came from monkeys like some believe, why are there still monkeys?

Surely they have had time to become us.

Simple questions. Why there dumb birds and very smart birds? Why are there Pigeons and why are their Hawks? Why do Monkey's have tails and Aapes have big muscles? Why do African Elephants have big ears while Asian Elephants have smaller heads/ears? Why are there .... nvm

Asking a stupid question like that doens't make for as good of a question as just made with those questions. Oh ya forgot!! Chickens have reptile like scales on their feet, but they don't look like Reptiles. So are they related?

**Manco** · June 16, 2009, 10:01 PM

Perhaps your confusion stems from a goal-oriented view of evolution? Something I see quite a lot with religious people.

You seem to think that all monkeys and primates should evolve into something similar to us, that that is somehow a logical result. That's not the case. They're all adapted to their habitats, which is essentially what evolution is about.
We also can't say we're more advanced evolutionary, we're just as far down the ladder as every single other extant species.

**Lumina** · June 16, 2009, 10:11 PM

Originally Posted by Manco

Perhaps your confusion stems from a goal-oriented view of evolution? Something I see quite a lot with religious people.

You seem to think that all monkeys and primates should evolve into something similar to us, that that is somehow a logical result. That's not the case. They're all adapted to their habitats, which is essentially what evolution is about.
We also can't say we're more advanced evolutionary, we're just as far down the ladder as every single other extant species.

Thats hardly a logical result, its actually most logical when looking at the facts of whether all the animals that survived survived because they were better, or just more adapted to their environment, humanity was a chance card, a shot in the bucket, a random fluke in history which turned out to cause the planets worst cancer.

**Fiyenyaa** · June 17, 2009, 03:44 AM

Originally Posted by Manco

We also can't say we're more advanced evolutionary, we're just as far down the ladder as every single other extant species.

Totally true - every species has been evolving for as long as every other one; a slug is as evolved as we are.
I think that it is a common misconception even outside of the religious for people to think that evolution is trying to reach some sort of super being, as opposed to anything which will survive and thrive.

**CtrlAltDe1337** · June 16, 2009, 10:09 PM

Why is this in the EMM and not the Athenaeum?

**~~removeduser_426582376423734~~** · June 17, 2009, 06:10 AM

If we all came from fish, why are there still fish?

**Noble Savage** · June 17, 2009, 07:09 AM

Moved to the Science bit.

Ta

Noble Savage

**Helm** · June 17, 2009, 07:23 AM

We didn't evolve from those actual monkeys but shared a common ancestor with them at some point. And they didn't evolve to become human like because they're filling a different ecological niche living in trees and doing monkey things.

**Sphere** · June 17, 2009, 04:51 PM

In the same way that two brothers have the same parent, humans and monkeys have a shared ancestor. That is all evolution is. Your Great-Great etc...Grandfather might also be the Great-Great etc...Grandfather of a Howler Monkey.