Humans Came From Apes

Myth #1. Humans Came From Apes

I frequently hear this one, and when I do, I know that the person has never taken the time to learn anything about evolution. This is usually followed by the question "if we came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?" to which the only appropriate response is "if God created man from dirt, why is there still dirt?" All kidding aside, at no point has any evolutionary biologist said that humans evolved from apes. Humans and apes share a common ancestor. This ancestor was neither human nor ape. Just as a tree has branches, our species has branches. From this common ancestor, we'll find our evolutionary branches filled with gorillas, humans, and chimpanzees. We'll also find many branches that have gone extinct including Homo ergaster, Homo neanderthalensis, and Homo habilis. It's truly remarkable that we still have the fossils of these species to examine! I've heard people proclaim (sadly, on too many occasions) that fossils are the handiwork of the devil and that Satan put those fossils in the ground to confuse us. There isn't an appropriate response to an assertion like that.