Ah! This is actually a common misconception! Humans didn’t evolve from apes – apes and humans evolved from the same common ancestor. We can track evolutionary development using tools and skulls to guess how intelligent things were. It’s actually very hard to classify where one species begins and another ends as evolution is a gradual process. Another kind of early man was the neanderthal who also had a common ancestor with us but we outcompeted the heavier, slower neanderthal and they became extinct.
Apes evolved from a common ancestor of humans – so we went one way the apes we have today a slightly different way. As Rowena says there were also other ancestors of ours that did not evolve the same way as us – neanderthals (other cavemen) became extinct where we survived to tell the tale. Finding the links back to the ancestors is a very tricky business – I’m amazed at how some scientists can look at bones and tell you just how that ancestor was like us and how it was different.
I think “we evolved from apes” just sounds so much cooler than “we are closely related to apes” that teaching gets lazy. This is one of the great challenges of science communication!!!
Comments
jodlington commented on :
i never knew that!
Rowena commented on :
I think “we evolved from apes” just sounds so much cooler than “we are closely related to apes” that teaching gets lazy. This is one of the great challenges of science communication!!!