Evolution: why are there still monkeys, apes, chimps, etc.?

[BigBertha]

@Alessan

If lions exist, why are there still tigers?

Because they don’t eat chickens. snert

[crowmanyclouds]

:rolleyes: Only a fool would leave the snert. It’s the best part of the chicken after the oysters!

CMC fnord!

[Blake]

@Voyager

Our ancestor (who was not a monkey) no longer exists.

We have a great many ancestors that were monkeys. I would guess that humans have at least a dozen monkey ancestors.

It’s perfectly correct to say that humans evolved from monkeys.

[DanBlather]

Wow, this is deep. I think it may cause the whole evolutionist crowd to re-think their beliefs. I’m not sure if they have a thesis for this. Cause if they did, it’d probably be one of the first things explained in any description of evolution. It’d be the kind of thing that anyone with any rudimentary knowledge of logic or biology would know.

[Ludovic]

Dan, there are many unanswered questions about this that do not have an adequate explanation in current science. Any researcher who finds out how species can pass on different characteristics to their offspring based on selective pressure will surely win a Nobel Prize.

[Squink]

@DanBlather

Wow, this is deep. I think it may cause the whole evolutionist crowd to re-think their beliefs.

We’ll call it ‘Darwingate’, and scream fraud when google ignores our creative speeling.

I’m not sure why this wasn’t in GQ in the first place.

[The_Flying_Dutchman]

@The_Hamster_King

Humans evolved on the grassy plains of east Africa. A lot of the features that separate us from other species of primates are specific adaptations to that environment. We walk upright on two legs because it’s a more efficient way of covering long distances on flat open ground. We aren’t covered in hair because sweating is an useful way to shed excess heat in a sunny open environment. We have a brain that helps us work together as pack hunters and communal gatherers.

Our closest relatives, the chimps, evolved for a different environment. They’re forest foragers, not grassland hunters. So, because they were subject to different environmental pressures, they evolved in a different direction.

Well then, explain the short black people that forage the jungle deep in Africa.

[Tero1111]

Why are there still bacteria and plants? In fact, the main part of life is bacteria and plants. We are just parasites on that basic foundation of life.

[Sailboat]

@Terraplane

The species we are evolved from isn’t still around. That species is just a common ancestor that we share with apes. If one species only ever evolved into one single other species the world would likely have a grand total of one species.

@Voyager

Amid all the crud here, Terraplane has it. Our ancestor (who was not a monkey) no longer exists. In fact we have many ancestral species who no longer exist, some of which were ancestral to both us and our nearest neighbors, the chimps.

Well, “has it” depends on what Terraplane intended to mean. If the intent was a complete aside – “by the way, unrelated to evolution, our common ancestor didn’t persist into modern times” then it’s technically correct but does not address the OP.

If the intent was “because the common ancestor turned into humans and chimps and was no longer itself,” that’s flat-out wrong. As would be “Humans and chimps better suited the environment and lived, while the common ancestor necessarily died out, being an older form.”

Evolution does not change one species into another, it (sometimes) changes a population of that species into another, often leaving the original species intact. Evolution does not move in a direction toward improved forms; instead, accident and chance pick off some forms while leaving others behind. This tends to select for traits fitting the current environment but does not imply a better form the next time environmental conditions change.

Species split into populations, subspecies, and new species all the time. The “old” species can co-exist with the new subspecies or species until fate causes further changes, up to and including wiping out one or both of the now-different forms.

If the common ancestor evolving into humans and chimps meant there were no more of the common ancestor, we wouldn’t still have wolves and:

Affenpinscher
Afghan Hound
Airedale Terrier
Akita
Alaskan Malamute
American Bulldog
American Eskimo Dog
American Foxhound
American Pit Bull Terrier
American Staffordshire Terrier
American Water Spaniel
Anatolian Shepherd Dog
Argentine Dogo
Australian Cattle Dog
Australian Shepherd
Australian Terrier

B
Basenji
Basset Hound
Beagle
Bearded Collie
Beauceron
Bedlington Terrier
Belgian Malinois
Belgian Sheepdog
Belgian Tervuren
Bernese Mountain Dog
Bichon Frise
Black and Tan Coonhound
Black Russian Terrier
Bloodhound
Bluetick Coonhound
Border Collie
Border Terrier
Borzoi
Boston Terrier
Bouvier Des Flandres
Boxer
Boykin Spaniel
Briard
Brittany
Brussels Griffon
Bull Terrier
Bull Terrier (Miniature)
Bulldog
Bullmastiff

C
Cairn Terrier
Canaan Dog
Cane Corso
Cardigan Welsh Corgi
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
Cesky Terrier
Chesapeake Bay Retriever
Chihuahua
Chinese Crested
Chinese Shar-Pei
Chow Chow
Clumber Spaniel
Cocker Spaniel
Collie (Rough and Smooth)
Curly-Coated Retriever

D
Dachshund
Dalmatian
Dandie Dinmont Terrier
Doberman Pinscher
Dogue de Bordeaux

E
English Cocker Spaniel
English Foxhound
English Setter
English Springer Spaniel
English Toy Spaniel

F
Field Spaniel
Finnish Spitz
Flat-Coated Retriever
Fox Terrier (Smooth)
Fox Terrier (Toy)
Fox Terrier (Wire)
French Bulldog

G
German Pinscher
German Shepherd Dog
German Shorthaired Pointer
German Wirehaired Pointer
Giant Schnauzer
Glen of Imaal Terrier
Golden Retriever
Gordon Setter
Great Dane
Great Pyrennes
Greater Swiss Mountain Dog
Greyhound

H
Harrier
Havanese
Hovawart

I
Ibizan Hound
Icelandic Sheepdog
Irish Red & White Setter
Irish Setter
Irish Terrier
Irish Water Spaniel
Irish Wolfhound
Italian Greyhound

J
Jack Russell Terrier
Japanese Chin

K
Keeshond
Kerry Blue Terrier
Komondor
Kuvasz

L
Labrador Retriever
Lakeland Terrier
Leonberger
Lhasa Apso
Löwchen

M
Maltese
Manchester Terrier
Manchester Terrier (Toy)
Mastiff
Miniature Bull Terrier
Miniature Pinscher
Miniature Poodle
Miniature Schnauzer

N
Neapolitan Mastiff
Newfoundland
Norfolk Terrier
Norwegian Buhund
Norwegian Elkhound
Norwegian Lundehund
Norwich Terrier
Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever

O
Old English Sheepdog
Otterhound

P
Papillon
Parson Russell Terrier
Pekingese
Pembroke Welsh Corgi
Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen
Pharaoh Hound
Plott
Pointer
Polish Lowland Sheepdog
Pomeranian
Poodle (Miniature)
Poodle (Standard)
Poodle (Toy)
Portuguese Water Dog
Pug
Puli
Pyrenean Shepherd

R
Redbone Coonhound
Rhodesian Ridgeback
Rottweiler

S
Saint Bernard
Saluki
Samoyed
Schipperke
Schnauzer(Giant)
Schnauzer (Miniature)
Schnauzer (Standard)
Scottish Deerhound
Scottish Terrier
Sealyham Terrier
Shetland Sheepdog
Shiba Inu
Shih Tzu
Siberian Husky
Silky Terrier
Skye Terrier
Smooth Fox Terrier
Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier
Spinone Italiano
Staffordshire Bull Terrier
Standard Poodle
Standard Schnauzer
Sussex Spaniel
Swedish Vallhund

T
Tibetan Mastiff
Tibetan Spaniel
Tibetan Terrier
Tosa
Toy Fox Terrier
Toy Manchester Terrier
Toy Poodle

V
Vizsla

W
Weimaraner
Welsh Corgi (Cardigan)
Welsh Corgi (Pembroke)
Welsh Springer Spaniel
Welsh Terrier
West Highland White Terrier
Whippet
Wire Fox Terrier
Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Y
Yorkshire Terrier

The reason we don’t have the common ancestor any more is unknown and probably unknowable – it just happened that they perished and we didn’t. But that’s not true for dogs, as you can see, or for many other species.

.

[Blake]

@The_Flying_Dutchman

Well then, explain the short black people that forage the jungle deep in Africa.

What needs explaining?

[BrandonR]

This question is covered in the Index to Creationist Claims, along with a massive assortment of other evolutionary questions.

[Musicat]

@gonzomax

http://www.utdallas.edu/~besp/images/Ape_and_Human_Evolution_Tree.JPG

I think I could mate with one of those.

[Stoneburg]

@Musicat

I think I could mate with one of those.

Keep your hands off my orangutan!
Apes are our evolutionary relatives, not our evolutionary parents. Our mommys and daddys are dead, but our cousins and nephews are still alive.

[Cliffy]

Sailboat: Tl;dr!

Anyway, as others have said, the important thing to understand is that evolution is a local phenomenon. Let’s say there’s a big group of some animal. While foraging, half of them cross a ford over a river into a rocky area, while the rest stay closer to home, which is more forested. Then there’s an earthquake and the river’s impassable. These two groups now live in different conditions – one in forest, one in rock. The things there to eat are different. The shade is different, and therefore means of temperature control. The footing is different. So if the rocky group evolves over time to meet these new challenges, it’ll be very different than the other group. But they’ll both still exist, because they both have adapted to suit their current environments. Until such time as something else changes and they either adapt again, or die out.

–Cliffy

[gonzomax]

@Musicat

I think I could mate with one of those.

Which one? Is she the gorilla your dreams?

[John_Mace]

@Squink

Those monkeys that are still around are descended from monkeys that avoided getting their asses caught in the particular crack that selected for human traits.
Today’s monkeys are probably not exactly the same as the monkeys which we evolved from since, in the ensuing two or three million years, there’s been time for lots of genetic drift and selection events within the monkey population.

Yes, that’s it, but delete the “probably” from your second sentence. Also, apes split off from monkeys a lot more than 3M years ago. Multiply that by 10.

@The Hamster King

Humans evolved on the grassy plains of east Africa. A lot of the features that separate us from other species of primates are specific adaptations to that environment. We walk upright on two legs because it’s a more efficient way of covering long distances on flat open ground. We aren’t covered in hair because sweating is an useful way to shed excess heat in a sunny open environment. We have a brain that helps us work together as pack hunters and communal gatherers.

Our closest relatives, the chimps, evolved for a different environment. They’re forest foragers, not grassland hunters. So, because they were subject to different environmental pressures, they evolved in a different direction.

While the genus *Homo *probably evolved on the grassy plains of Africa (~2M years ago), our earlies ancestors who walked upright probably didn’t. The more common hypothesis these days is that we’ve been walking upright for at least 4M years, and probably even longer. At that time, our ancestors were likely living in a mixed environment of woodlands and grass and were still adapted to spending a significant amount of time in the trees.

[Musicat]

@John_Mace

Yes, that’s it, but delete the “probably” from your second sentence.

A nitpick, maybe…but if you are saying that species always get highly modified over time, I don’t think that is certain. Crocodiles and coelacanths (for example) are considered to be nearly identical to their long ago ancestors.

For crocodiles:

They are an ancient lineage, and are believed to have changed little since the time of the dinosaurs. They are believed to be 200 million years old whereas dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago; crocodiles survived great extinction events.

[John_Mace]

@Musicat

A nitpick, maybe…but if you are saying that species always get highly modified over time, I don’t think that is certain. Crocodiles and coelacanths (for example) are considered to be nearly identical to their long ago ancestors.

Note the 4 words immediately after “probably” in that post. No nitpick required.

[SteveG1]

@The_Tooth

Because chickens taste better and are easier to catch.

Long pork. The other other white meat

[SteveG1]

@Alessan

If lions exist, why are there still tigers?

In the beginning there was a Great Void. And Ceiling Cat sayeth,