I didn’t come from a monkey!

Posted on July 2, 2008 | 3 Comments

How often do you hear this sort of comment from those who reject evolutionary science?

These sort of comments may demonstrate a degree of species chauvinism – but they don’t demonstrate any understanding of the science. Because, of course, no one suggests that humans evolved from monkey. This figure from Richard Dawkins’ wonderful book The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution presents an overview of primate evolution and human origins. (See us – 3rd from the top).primate evolution

So, we didn’t evolve from monkeys (these are modern species) but we shared a common ancestor with the Old World monkeys 25 million years ago, and with the New World monkeys 40 million years ago. Our common ancestors with the orangutans lived 14 million years ago, and with the gorillas 7 million years ago.

As for the retort “I didn’t come from an ape!” Well, apes are defined as “the members of the Hominoidea superfamily of primates, which includes humans.”

So we are all apes.

*Figure adapted from Stewart and Disotell: “Primate Evolution – in and out of Africa”. (pdf)

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3 responses to “I didn’t come from a monkey!”

  1. keegan harrington | February 24, 2010 at 10:19 am |

    we haven’t been here for billions of years, only around 6000 years…..yea you heard me

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  2. keegan harrington | February 24, 2010 at 10:42 am |

    adding onto what I said, …… time is not constant, it goes with the force of gravity. The 2 atomic clocks are a fraction of a second off because one is closer to the center of the earth, but if you multiply that by the length of the universe, than that difference is huge!!…… we ( our galaxy) is towards the center of the universe, an the difference of being at the center of the UNIVERSE is a huge difference on the time, so starlight can take more or less time to get here. Also the General Theory of Relativity states that a huge object (galaxy) bends space and time, so the time of starlight getting here is changed.Fossil evidence is also not an accurate contradiction, because when Mt. st Helens erupted, thousands of years of fossil evidence was layed down in 3 hrs, and the same thing happened at the flood in biblical times. the flood (Noah’s ark flood) laid down millions and millions of years of rock in a very short time period.

    Keegan Harrington
    13 years old

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  3. Ken | February 24, 2010 at 11:24 am |

    Keegan:

    1: What atomic clocks are you talking about? And what are their specific locations?

    2: What is the “length of the universe”?

    3: How do you define the “centre of the universe” and how do you know our galaxy is “towards it”?

    4: What fossil evidence, which species, were laid down in the last Mt. St. Helen’s eruption?

    5: How do you determine the “very short time period” when “millions and millions of years of rock” is lad down?

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