Did humans evolve from apes

Answer 1

Current thinking is that humans and apes evolved from a common ancestor and scientists are getting closer and closer to telling us that story of our origins.

On October 9, 2009 scientists announced the discovery of the oldest fossil skeleton of a human ancestor to date. It has taken the spotlight off "Lucy", who walked the earth 3.2 million years ago. The discovery was made in Ethiopia. Researchers say it will put to rest the earlier hypothesis of a "missing link" ape that would be found "at the root of the human family tree". The skeleton offers a basis for researchers of what the common ancestor of apes and humans might have been like. There have been astounding archeological discoveries in the last decade that have enabled evolutionists to discard older suppositions and add more information to the story of evolution.

On May 7, 2010 scientists announced they had documented the Neanderthal genome and revealed some interesting facts. We have traces of Neanderthal DNA in our DNA, proving that earlier ancestors assimilated with other early humans.

The study of human evolution is not static. It is going on every day at universities and archeological sights around the world. As new information is discovered the story becomes more accurate. Anyone who can ignore the abundant results of that research is missing out on a treasure trove of interesting information about where we came from.

In 2012 scientists completed the genome of the bonobo, an African ape. When added to the genomes that have already been completed for orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees we now have a complete DNA catalogue of the great apes. The studies show that humans are most closely related to bonobos and chimpanzees. The three are more closely related to each other than any is to gorillas.

Answer 2

In addition to the previous answer, it should be noted that according to classical Linnaean taxonomy and modern cladistics, humans are apes. And since we share that distinction with a number of other species, it must therefore logically be true that the ancestors we and those other species of ape evolved from was also an ape.

This does not mean that they were any species of modern ape, of course. Modern species of ape are derived from the basal clade of apes.