If we evolved from monkeys,why do they still exist?

[Ronin]

I will be the first to admit I am a novice when it comes to scientific matters.
Maybe it is a question that is easly answered. So... If we came from monkeys
why are they still alive today? Did only some of them evolve to humans?
Then what did the rest evolve to? By the way if I was a scientist in the 1800's
it isn't too hard to look at a monkey,and think, whow!!! you look like me. I must be related to you!!! Darwin wasn't that clever, after all how many animals have 4 legs in nature? are they all related? Ohhh!! I guess they are.

[Student Nurse]

I will be the first to admit I am a novice when it comes to scientific matters.
Maybe it is a question that is easly answered. So... If we came from monkeys
why are they still alive today? Did only some of them evolve to humans?
Then what did the rest evolve to? By the way if I was a scientist in the 1800's
it isn't too hard to look at a monkey,and think, whow!!! you look like me. I must be related to you!!! Darwin wasn't that clever, after all how many animals have 4 legs in nature? are they all related? Ohhh!! I guess they are.

My husband asked the same thing.

As I studied further, I found that we did not evolve FROM monkeys per se. We co-evolved with them. In other words, we have the same ancestors further back on the evolutionary timetable, but as monkeys adapted to their environment and would-be humans adapted to theirs, we both took separate but equal evolutionary paths.

The evolutionary timetable looks more like a tree than a line. All organisms have the same root, but all went their own ways according to their environments. That is why (most of them) are still around today, and are still slightly modifying themselves to better adapt to the current environments (seeing as the environment is always changing as well).

Here's a link with a pic of the "tree" I was talking about.

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrar ... 0_0/evo_02

[pepo1]

Here's one I've yet to hear a reasonable answer for: Why did humans lose their hair, assuming we were monkey-like at some stage. Surely, it isn't very good natural selection. Some say we evolved into clothes, but I highly doubt it. My creationist theory is that God created man to live in the Garden of Eden, a warm place not requiring clothing night or day.

One thing, saying we share a common ancestry with monkeys doesn't mean they were our grandparents. Your creationist theory says that God created man to life in the Garden of Eden, it also says that God kicked man out of the Garden of Eden. You think maybe he gave man the ability to adapt to his environment to survive outside the Garden of Eden? Oh yeah, and where is this Garden of Eden? How is it you know of it's climate?

I said "assuming we were monkey-like at some stage" meaning assuming we shared some similar traits and I have to assume that, as most ground-living mammals have a decent coating of hair as protection and heat regulation, that it is a high probability that we also had it (or should have had it), if we follow man's ascent through evolutionary theory as opposed to any other theory.

There are many theories about where the Garden of Eden was located. Some believe that the massive oil fields around the Persian Gulf region is testimony to the large amounts of foilage and organic matter present there when the garden of Eden existed. Anyway, most theories point to very warm regions.

[2 many loop holes]

Here's one I've yet to hear a reasonable answer for: Why did humans lose their hair, assuming we were monkey-like at some stage. Surely, it isn't very good natural selection. Some say we evolved into clothes, but I highly doubt it. My creationist theory is that God created man to live in the Garden of Eden, a warm place not requiring clothing night or day.

One thing, saying we share a common ancestry with monkeys doesn't mean they were our grandparents. Your creationist theory says that God created man to life in the Garden of Eden, it also says that God kicked man out of the Garden of Eden. You think maybe he gave man the ability to adapt to his environment to survive outside the Garden of Eden? Oh yeah, and where is this Garden of Eden? How is it you know of it's climate?

I think hair on apes is a signal to as alert. I learned that goosebups back hair stand up in apes to alert. another explination of evolution our gosebups are worthless. + we have a higher level of cognitive resoning to make clothing to protect our self from the cold?