• Question: If humans have evolved from monkey's or apes, why are they still here?

    Asked by kyranight to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Will on 20 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by itsspaigee, yowitsangeline, ciaralydon.
    • Photo: Karen Reed

      Karen Reed answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      We are not a direct descendent (or have evolved from) apes or monkeys. But we do have a common ancestor.
      Try a mind exercise, think of a picture of you. Next to it put a picture of your parents, and you can see the similarity. Next to that put a picture of their parents, and then theirs and so on. You will always look like your parents and share their characteristics but with time you can see how things change a bit. Keep going back for millions of years in the same way. You’ll end up with a lot of pictures, and you will look VERY different to the ones at the other end of the pile of pictures even though you are a direct descendent. At some point apes and humans had a common ancestor (like the roots in a tree), but at some point their pile of pictures differed to our and took a different route (like the branches of a tree). Hope that helps

    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      Hi kyranight,

      Great question! Apes a long time ago looked different to current apes. These evolved into different animals in different places – some evolved into humans, some into chimps, some into gorillas and so on! So of course today they all look and behave differently, but back then they all had the same ancestors!

      🙂 Sarah

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