Ask a Teacher
Similar to Darwin's theory of evolution it is said that man is evolved from monkeys.And now why this evolution is not happening? |
Firstly, humans did not evolve from monkeys. Instead, monkeys and humans share a common ancestor from which both evolved around 25 million years ago. This evolutionary relationship is supported both by the fossil record and DNA analysis. A 2007 study showed that humans and rhesus monkeys share about 93% of their DNA. Based on the similarities and differences between the two types of DNA, scientists have estimated that humans and rhesus monkeys diverged from their common ancestor 25 million years ago. The fossil record has identified ancestors common to both humans and monkeys, such as an as yet unnamed primate fossil from Myanmar found in 2009 and dated as living around 37 million years ago. Humans are actually more closely related to chimpanzees and other apes, but DNA evidence again shows that we didn't evolve from them. Chimps and humans share between 98 to 99% of DNA suggesting that we shared a common ancestor around 6 million years ago. The idea of sharing a common ancestor leads to the second major misunderstanding inherent in the question," says Dr Willis, "that evolution is a linear process where one species evolves into another." Evolution is really a branching process where one species can give rise to two or more species. The same thing happens in evolutionary families. A species can split into two or more descendant species and they can split again and again across the generations. |