As soon as you hear of the term ‘Evolution of man’, most people remember monkeys. Isn’t it!! Humans are not evolved from monkeys. Thinking of chimpanzees or gorillas?! We didn’t evolve from these modern apes too!! The DNA sequence comparisons figures that there are 95% similarity between humans and chimpanzees. But we are closely related to these modern apes than to monkeys. In fact, we and modern apes share a common ancestor. Scientists believe that these common ancestors survived 5-8 million years ago. After that, these species formed two diversions. One of them evolved into chimpanzees and gorillas, and the other evolved into early humans also called as hominids (human-like species). The oldest known hominid has been dated at 4.4 million years old. Another species, which is yet to be confirmed as a hominid, has been dated at 6 million years old. Scientists estimate that the hominid lineage diverged from the ape lineage 5 to 8 million years ago. Homo sapiens, the species to which we belong, have existed for about 100,000 years. It is possible that in many millions of years present day apes could evolve into some other humanlike species. It is, however, very improbable. First of all, humans did not evolve from any of the species we know as apes today. Humans are a result of a very specific combination of selection pressures and genetic mutations over millions of years. This same combination is highly unlikely to occur ever again. |
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