![]() ![]() There has long been a debate among scientists on whether the animal world started with sea sponges or jellies (related to the jellyfish). Many were rooting for the jellies, as they are beautiful sea creatures and many would be proud to come from them. Your spongy relativesįorget about the monkey/chimpanzee debate. It turns out all animals on Earth go back to a single ancestor - the humble sea sponge. But again, as you will see, this whole discussion is a little short-sighted. No, they didn’t come from the same parents but somewhere, way down the line, they shared a common ancestor. It might be helpful to view the human-chimpanzee relationship as great distant cousins. That long-ago common ancestor evolved into two different branches about 4 million years ago. One line produced animals that became what we know as apes and chimpanzees, and the other line produced what we know as humans. But remember, this didn’t happen right away. A long-lost common ancestor didn’t all of the sudden make a human and a chimpanzee. There were many steps in the middle, but they eventually all died and we are left with humans and chimpanzees. What really is happening is that humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor. But we still didn’t come from chimpanzees like many believe. The more scientists learn about chimpanzees, the more connections they find to humans. Modern humans and chimpanzees share 98.8% of the same DNA. While that might sound like a great insult, it is very true. (Over-simplified because you could spend a lifetime studying our evolutionary past.) You’re 99% chimpanzee ![]() We didn’t come from chimpanzees either. The “humans came from chimpanzees” line is very common - and it is close - but also wrong.Įither way, all these arguments are quite short-sighted when it comes to the evolution of the human. Let’s take an over-simplified look at our past. Did humans come from monkeys? Go around town talking about that, and some people will clap in agreement while others will be completely offended.Ĭertainly, a species as great as humans could not have come from monkeys, right? That is correct. ![]()
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