• Question: If our brains and persons have evolved from apes then why are there apes around now?

    Asked by morgansheridan to Damien, Rachael, Simon, Suzi, Tim on 18 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by hiimsharon.
    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi @morgansheridan
      Thanks for this question.
      It’s not quite the case that we evolved FROM apes, but rather that humans and apes have common ancestors. This means there was a species in the past that was similar to both humans and apes, which we both evolved from. One group of this species went on to become apes, and another group went on to become humans.

      Hope this answers your question 🙂

    • Photo: Damien Hall

      Damien Hall answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      What Suzi says is right, of course. But I can add that you were thinking in the right way, too – if some species evolves from another species, then the one it evolves from isn’t around any more. Our species of human is called homo sapiens, and we are the only kind of human still around now, but there were other species before us, called homo habilis, homo rhodesiensis and others. The chart here

      shows them, and shows that h. rhodesiensis was our direct ancestor.

      What an interesting question!

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