• Question: Did we actually evolve from apes and what evidence is there?

    Asked by karlaandtasha to Ed, Katie, Sam, Steve, Vera on 20 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by dntumba, ashleigh93, sofiegrey.
    • Photo: Steven Daly

      Steven Daly answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      This is a good question. The answer is yes we did, but probably not in the way you are thinking. When we say that we evolved from apes, what we mean is that we share a recent common ancestor with other apes such as chimpanzees. Both humans and chimps evolved from the same animal about 4 million years ago.

      There is good evidence to support this. One is bones found of our ancestors, different species of humans from which we in turn evolved, and as you go further back the closer to apes we become.

      Another piece of evidence is in DNA. Some of the genes we have are pretty much the same in all species of animals, with only a few differences. If you look at these differences then you can see how long ago any two animals shared a common ancestor, the fewer the differences the closer the two animals are. So this shows we are closest to chimps, less close to horses, even less close to frogs, not at all close to plants.

    • Photo: Ed Morrison

      Ed Morrison answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      What Steven said.

    • Photo: Vera Weisbecker

      Vera Weisbecker answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      Yes, what Steven said.

    • Photo: Katie Marriott

      Katie Marriott answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      DNA is definitely the key. Nothing really to add from what has already been said!

    • Photo: Sam Tazzyman

      Sam Tazzyman answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Yes, what Steven said. If you look here you can see the phylogeny (like a sort of evolutionary family tree) showing how closely related humans are to chimps, bonobos, gorillas, and so on.

      http://www.whozoo.org/mammals/Primates/primatephylogeny.htm

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