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Author Topic:   Why are there no human apes alive today?
tuffers
Member (Idle past 5276 days)
Posts: 92
From: Norwich, UK
Joined: 07-20-2009


Message 64 of 1075 (516255)
07-24-2009 10:56 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by Doubletime
06-18-2009 6:06 AM


WHY ARE THERE NO HUMAN APES ALIVE TODAY?
Hi Doubletime
I'm a little late to this debate and as usual haven't had time to read everyone else's response, so I apologise if I repeat what has already been said.
There are human apes alive today - that's us!
There's no such thing as a semi-human, or indeed any semi-species. No species is at a half-way stage towards evolving in a particular direction to something else that has been pre-determined. The way a species evolves depends on random mutations and environment. The individuals with random mutations that are an advantage in their environment are the ones that are most likely to survive and reproduce. But there is no foresight as to what those mutations or those environments will be. No organism or species is trying to be something else. It either survives to reproduce or it doesn't.
Humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor, and I understand that neither humans nor chimpanzees resemble that ancestor, so it's not accurate to say chimpanzees have survived to this day without evolving. They have evolved to be very well adapted to their environment in the rain forests.
Why other species of humans became extinct may largely be because they were in direct competition with us (Homo Sapiens) and our direct ancestors. It seems very likely that the Neanderthals died out due to competition from Homo Sapiens when we arrived in Europe. It may have been very similar to the fate of our indigenous squirrels here in the UK, which have nearly become extinct since the relatively recent introduction of North American squirrels that are simply much better competitors in their shared environment.
Other types of ape such as chimpanzees, orangutangs and gorillas have managed to survive because they live in a different environment to most humans and so are not in direct competition with us.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Doubletime, posted 06-18-2009 6:06 AM Doubletime has not replied

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