Let's give the answer first:Humans didn't evolve from monkeys! But monkeys are "related" to humans, so to speak, "cousins" of humans, because humans and monkeys shared a common ancestor thousands of years ago.
Don't be discouraged by the fact that humans and monkeys have a common ancestor, feeling as if you are "belittling" humans. In fact, not to mention monkeys, humans and all animals such as pigs, cows, and sheep have a common ancestor, but a much older ancestor. Because all species on Earth share a common ancestor, which can be traced back to the most primitive life about 3.5 billion years ago.
So,Humans and monkeys are "cousins" in a relationshipWhat's so strange about it? It's so normal. To put it mildly, humans are also "cousins" with dogs, and they are also "cousins" with pigs, which sounds like swearing, but from a biological point of view, it is.
In the long-term science popularization work, I have seen too many people who hold the view that "humans evolved from monkeys", and I don't know what the intentions of those who hold this view are, whether they are intentional or really don't know?
But I think in the eyes of most people, they don't really think that "humans evolved from monkeys", and it is a simple interpretation of the evolution process of humans in a popular way, and what I want to express is that the ancestors of humans are some kind of primate species. And monkeys do look a bit like human ancestors in appearance, so monkeys will be used as an analogy.
But if you really think that "humans evolved from monkeys", you are very wrong. In fact, there is still a big difference between humans and monkeys, because humans and monkeys are actually very far from each other in terms of evolutionary relationship. Monkeys all have tails, while humans don't. In fact, humans will be closer to apes and orangutans than monkeys.
Although we often say "ape", actuallyApe and monkey are two completely different speciesIn reality, we often see monkeys, but rarely apes, and can only be seen in animal documentaries, such as gibbons.
Apes and orangutans are closer "cousins" of humans and are closer than monkeys. How to understand this "cousin" relationship?
Actually,The evolutionary process of species on Earth is like a towering treeIn this way, the tree will grow different branches, each of which is equivalent to a different species, and the branches may also diverge into more branches, all of which are connected to the original trunk, either directly or indirectly. And the trunk is the "ancestor" of all branches.
The process of evolution can be understood in this way. For example, your grandfather has 4 sons, and one of them is your grandfather. And 4 sons gave birth to 4 sons, so until your generation, it is already ***.
So how many cousins do you have? It's not hard to calculate, it's 60, and three are your own brothers. Of course, these 60 cousins and cousins have different relationships with you, but they can all be regarded as your "cousins", and the cousins who are more distant from you can be compared to the "monkeys" mentioned above, and the cousins who are closer to you can be compared to "apes or orangutans".
There is nothing swearing, this analogy is just to illustrate the problem more vividly. The process of evolution is quite long, of course, it is impossible to evolve different species with only 4 generations, don't raise the bar here, we just need to extend 4 generations to tens of thousands of generations to understand, but it is easier to understand with 4 generations to analogy.
Obviously, if you think that "humans evolved from monkeys" is equivalent to "you evolved from your cousin", obviously this is impossible, and you can't admit it anyway.
Practical as I just said".Evolutionary tree"To understand the evolutionary history of human beings, it is quite clear and straightforward. Of course, there are many kinds of evolutionary trees, including more ancient "evolutionary trees", "evolutionary trees" that are nearly millions of years old, and even "evolutionary trees" of life on the entire earth.
Of course, we don't need to go into detail about the "evolutionary tree" of life on the entire earth, it's too complicated, because human history is only a million years, and the previous billions of years of history have not involved human beings, and of course there is no need to understand so much detail, and it will not help us understand the history of human evolution.
We just need to start from approximately7 million years agoThe human ancestors began to understand on the line, we called the human ancestors at that time "apes", remember, don't look at the literary, don't think that there is an "ape" in the "ape", just think that the ape is today's ape, two completely different concepts.
To put it bluntly, we don't know what to call the human ancestors 7 million years ago, but there has to be a name, that is, "apes", of course, you can call it "human ancestors", and it will not change the essence of things. The reason why it is called "ape" is because it looks a bit like today's humans, and also a bit like today's apes.
The apes that lived for 7 million years evolved many different human species, and unfortunately, all other species except humans became extinct, but the time of extinction was different. And the last extinct is known to many peopleNeanderthals and Denisovans.
There were many other races before that, and they were all extinct, such as Georgians, Heidelbergs, Pekingese, Lantian people, Yuanmou people, and more recently, Cave people, Denisovans, and Neanderthals. All of these human races eventually became extinct, with only the ancestors of modern humansHomo sapiensLucky to survive.
In fact, Homo sapiens should have been eliminated, but they were lucky enough to have been on the verge of extinction many times, but they could always survive death, otherwise there would be no humans today. If history could redo itself, the chances of evolving Homo sapiens again, or Homo sapiens, would be almost zero, even lower than the odds of winning the 5 million jackpot 10 times in a row.
Dig deeper, actuallyThe birth of wisdom is purely evenOf course, nature does not favor such a thing as wisdom at all, and even defaults to wisdom as a complete burden. For the vast majority of species, it is far better to spend energy on speed, dexterity, and explosiveness than to spend more energy on intelligence.
This is also why in the natural world we can't see other species can survive with intelligence, and other races other than humans have been eliminated because of this, many of them have brain capacity no less than today's humans, such as Neanderthals, but they can't stand in the eyes of nature Wisdom is a burden, so so many races were eventually eliminated.
From this point of view,Humans are completely "alien"., which is not at all in harmony with nature, and other species are the "orthodox species" on the planet.
Seeing this, you will still force "monkey or orangutans to evolve ** class?" ”
Many people on the Internet will have this question: why don't primate species such as monkeys and orangutans evolve in the direction of humans today?
As I just said, from an evolutionary point of view, the ancestors of human beings, Homo sapiens, should have been eliminated, but they were lucky enough to escape one catastrophe after another, but it can also be seen from this that human beings are obviously "alien" species, what qualifications do we have".OrthodoxyWhat about the evolution of species into "heterogeneous" species?
Of course, purely theoretical analysis, today's monkeys, orangutans, and even any other species, do have the possibility of evolutionary or intelligent species, but the probability is too low!
Intelligence has never been the direction or goal of evolution, let alone a measure of the advanced level of a species. Nature's criteria for defining the high are simple and crude:Alive! As long as you can survive, you are an advanced species!
So, human beings,Be less narcissistic
Don't stand in the so-called "God's perspective" to measure other species, and "force" other species to evolve in the direction of intelligence, in fact, this wishful thinking of human beings will most likely lead to the eventual extinction of other species: Won't all other races other than humans eventually become extinct?
Therefore, don't use wisdom to "morally kidnap" monkeys, orangutans or other species, not to say that evolutionary ** or intelligent species are considered successful, as I just said, to live is to be successful, or to say that a species that can adapt to the environment is success.
Wisdom is not only not the goal of evolution, but even the goal of nature's hate！Otherwise, there would be no bacteria and viruses on the earth today, and they would have evolved into intelligent species in billions of years.
Finally, the monkeys may also wonder how the human species has not evolved into monkeys.
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