Is it possible to humanize monkeys in our time. If man evolved from apes, then why don't modern apes evolve anymore? Different paths of human and monkey evolution
Chimpanzee
Although we are indeed close relatives of modern great apes, they did not evolve into humans.
The relationship between us is like the relationship between cousins: both brothers descended from the same great-grandfather. We and the great apes also descended from the same ancestor.
Evolution and life
We do not need to look into the distant past to find evidence for evolution. Evolution is a process that is constantly taking place around us. Bacteria that could previously be killed with penicillin have evolved to become resistant to this antibiotic. The color of the moths changed depending on the color of the trees on which they lived.
Animal species, gradually changing, better adapt to their environment. New species of animals also appear, they exist for millions of years, and then disappear. Evolution needs time and effort to be successful. Lucky case. Signs that help the species survive better - unusual but more efficient teeth, big sizes brain - may appear in a newborn as a result of random variability. If the traits that have appeared in this way are really useful and allow their carriers to better adapt and survive in conditions in which other representatives of the species cannot survive, then new individuals will give viable offspring and the trait will be fixed. In many years, all animals of this species will look different.
Related materials:
Center and mantle of the Earth
Common between man and monkey
Man belongs to the order of primates. More than 100 species belong to this order - monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas. We primates have more common features than differences: we have five fingers on our hands and feet, our teeth are adapted for chewing various types food - from a piece of meat to juicy fruit, at a time we give birth to one or more cubs, which grow for a very long time before becoming independent.
Our closest relatives are great apes - gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees. We are similar not because we are descended from them, but because we have common ancestors. The first mammals - the ancestors of dogs, whales, chimpanzees and humans - appeared 216 million years ago. They were small creatures with button eyes, nimble, no more than 10 centimeters in size. Scientists think they lived in burrows and nests and fed on insects. They were invisible, but after the extinction of the dinosaurs, it was mammals who entered into inheritance rights.
Interesting fact: evolution is a process that is constantly taking place around us.
The first primates on earth
About 70 million years ago, the first primates appeared. Small, like a rat, they moved through the tops of trees, and soon populated the entire planet. 30 million years ago, monkeys and small flat-nosed monkeys gradually replaced the primary primates. Later, monkeys and flat-nosed monkeys evolved in different ways, from the latter appeared the orangutan, gorillas and chimpanzees.
Related materials:
Why are cats afraid of cucumbers?
Different paths of human and monkey evolution
Humans and chimpanzees may have a common recent ancestor - an animal that lived millions of years ago and may be a bit like a chimpanzee. But beyond the path of man and chimpanzee forever diverged. One evolutionary branch gradually led to man, the other to the modern chimpanzee. If it were possible to repeat evolution at an accelerated pace, like in the movies, then we would see how animals of one branch become more and more like modern humans, and in another - like chimpanzees.
Chimpanzees are our closest relatives. We share 98.4 percent of our genes with them. We can observe some signs of similarity with our own eyes. Chimpanzees are social animals that use tools like sticks to dig tasty ants out of the ground. Food, they share among all members of the herd.
The reason for our transformation into humans and our " historical homeland"are the steppes of Africa - the savannah. Some groups of our primitive, ape-like ancestors left the forests and began to live on the grassy expanses of the savannah. During the wet season, the grass becomes succulent, the leaves are green, bushes grow. When the rains stop, the leaves dry up and the grass turns into hay. Animals living in the savanna must adapt to such conditions: sometimes there is an abundance of food, and at other times it practically disappears. So creatures that learn to live in the bushes and dig up nuts and seeds from the ground will be able to survive and not die in these harsh conditions.
There are several theories to explain this phenomenon. A.M. Tsarev believes that the process of turning a monkey into a man is extremely long and takes from 3 to 5 million years. It is during this period that the brain of a monkey will be able to grow to the size of the brain of a skilled person. And if we take into account the fact that a skilled person, whose brain weight was 650 cubic meters. cm, turned into a modern Homo sapiens with a brain size of 1300 cu. see only for 2 million years, in this case, you can make simple calculations to determine the time of transformation of a monkey into a rational being. The scientist divided 2 million years into the difference between the brain of a skilled and modern person. It turns out that the human brain increases by only 1 cubic meter. see 3076 years! Adherents of another theory argue that the species of monkeys from which man descended simply does not exist in the modern environment. It is assumed that our ancestors were either steppe monkeys (Australopithecines) or semi-aquatic carrion-eating monkeys. Moreover, the emergence of the human race would have been impossible if it were not for the change in certain climatic conditions, under which the warm swampy environment was replaced by a cold pre-glacial biotope. It was this situation that caused the need for monkeys to fight for existence, and as a result, the emergence of the first reasonable thoughts and actions. At the same time, the first tool of labor was used to obtain food. Modern living conditions do not dictate such conditions, so the emergence of a new anthropogenesis (the transformation of a humanoid ape into homo sapiens) does not occur. No matter how different all theories of the origin of man from a monkey are, no matter what arguments and facts scientists are guided by, they all agree on one thing. The emergence of a new man from a monkey is also impossible for the reason that in the process of evolution the ecological conditions of the habitat of these animals were destroyed. Man has taken a dominant position on Earth and simply will not allow a new species to develop. Perhaps, in the distant future, Homo sapiens as a species will die out, and then, subject to certain climatic conditions, a new individual from anthropoid apes will appear, which will become an alternative to Homo sapiens. If you like this article, put "Excellent", or at least "Good" But, acquiring an increasingly civilized appearance, a person tried not to perceive a chimpanzee or a gorilla as his likeness, because he quickly realized himself as the crown of creation of the almighty creator. When theories of evolution appeared, suggesting the initial link in the origin of Homo sapiens in primates, they were met with incredulity, and more often with hostility. Ancient monkeys, located at the very beginning of the pedigree of some English lord, were perceived at best with humor. Today, science has identified the direct ancestors of our biological species, who lived more than 25 million years ago. From the point of view of modern anthropology, the science of man, of his origin, it is considered incorrect to say that a person descended from a monkey. Man as a species evolved from the first people (they are usually called hominids), which were a radically different biological species than monkeys. The first great human - Australopithecus - appeared 6.5 million years ago, and the ancient monkeys, which became our common ancestor with modern anthropoid primates, about 30 million years ago. Methods for studying bone remains - the only evidence of ancient animals that have survived to our time - are constantly being improved. The oldest ape can often be classified by a jaw fragment or a single tooth. This leads to the fact that more and more new links appear in the scheme, complementing the overall picture. In the 21st century alone, more than a dozen such objects were found in various regions of the planet. The data of modern anthropology are constantly updated, which makes adjustments to the classification of biological species to which a person belongs. This applies to more detailed divisions, while the overall system remains unshakable. According to the latest views, man belongs to the class Mammals, order Primates, suborder Real monkeys, family Hominid, genus Man, species and subspecies Homo sapiens. The classification of the closest "relatives" of a person is the subject of constant debate. One option might look like this: Determining the exact time and place of origin of monkeys, like many other biological species, occurs like a gradually emerging image on a Polaroid photograph. The finds in different regions of the planet supplement the overall picture in detail, which is becoming clearer. At the same time, it is recognized that evolution is not a straight line - it is rather like a bush, where many branches become dead ends. Therefore, it is still a long way to build at least a segment of a clear path from primitive primate-like mammals to Homo sapiens, but there are already several reference points. Purgatorius - a small, no larger than a mouse, animal lived in trees, eating insects, in the Upper Cretaceous and (100-60 million years ago). Scientists put him at the beginning of the chain of evolution of primates. It revealed only the beginnings of signs (anatomical, behavioral, etc.) characteristic of monkeys: a relatively large brain, five fingers on the limbs, lower fecundity with no seasonality of reproduction, omnivorousness, etc. Ancient apes, the ancestors of anthropoids, left traces starting from the late Oligocene (33-23 million years ago). They still retain the anatomical features of narrow-nosed monkeys, put by anthropologists at a lower level: a short auditory meatus located outside, in some species - the presence of a tail, the lack of specialization of the limbs in proportion and some structural features of the skeleton in the area of the wrists and feet. Among these fossil animals, proconsulids are considered one of the most ancient. The peculiarities of the structure of the teeth, the proportions and dimensions of the cranium with an enlarged brain region relative to its other parts allow paleoanthropologists to classify proconsulids as anthropoid. This species of fossil monkeys includes proconsuls, kalepithecus, heliopithecus, nyanzapithecus, etc. These names were most often formed from the name of geographical objects near which fossil fragments were found. Most of the finds of the most ancient bones of paleoanthropologists are made on the African continent. In February 2013, paleoprimatologists from the United States, Australia and Tanzania published a report on the results of excavations in the Rukwa River Valley in southwestern Tanzania. They discovered a fragment of the lower jaw with four teeth - the remains of a creature that lived there 25.2 million years ago - this was the age of the rock in which this find was discovered. According to the details of the structure of the jaw and teeth, it was established that their owner belonged to the most primitive anthropoid apes from the proconsulid family. Rukvapitek - this is the name of this hominin ancestor, the oldest fossil great ape, because it is 3 million years older than any other paleoprimates discovered before 2013. There are other opinions, but they are connected with the fact that many scientists consider the proconsulids to be too primitive beings to define them as true humanoids. But this is a question of classification, one of the most controversial in science. In the geological deposits of the Miocene era (12-8 million years ago) in East Africa, Europe and China, the remains of animals were found, to which paleoanthropologists assigned the role of an evolutionary branch from proconsulids to true hominids. Driopithecus (Greek "drios" - tree) - the so-called ancient monkeys, which became a common ancestor for chimpanzees, gorillas and humans. The places of the finds and their dating make it possible to understand that these monkeys, outwardly very similar to modern chimpanzees, formed into a vast population, first in Africa, and then spread across Europe and the Eurasian continent. About 60 cm tall, these animals tried to move on their lower limbs, but mostly lived in trees and had longer “arms”. The ancient dryopithecus monkeys ate berries and fruits, which follows from the structure of their molars, which did not have a very thick layer of enamel. This shows a clear relationship of driopithecus with humans, and the presence of well-developed fangs makes them an unequivocal ancestor of other hominids - chimpanzees and gorillas. In 1936, several unusual monkey teeth, remotely similar to human ones, accidentally fell into the hands of paleontologists. They became the reason for the emergence of a version about their belonging to beings from an unknown evolutionary branch of human ancestors. The main reason for the appearance of such theories was the huge size of the teeth - they were twice the size of the teeth of a gorilla. According to the calculations of experts, it turned out that their owners had a height of more than 3 meters! After 20 years, a whole jaw with similar teeth was discovered, and the ancient giant monkeys turned from a creepy fantasy into a scientific fact. After a more accurate dating of the finds, it became clear that huge anthropoid primates existed at the same time as the Pithecanthropus (Greek "pithekos" - monkey) - ape-men, that is, about 1 million years ago. The opinion was expressed that they were the direct predecessors of man, involved in the disappearance of the largest of all monkeys that existed on the planet. Analysis of the environment in which fragments of giant bones were found, and the study of the jaws and teeth themselves, made it possible to establish that bamboo and other vegetation served as the main food for Gigantopithecus. But there were cases of discovery in caves, where they found the bones of monster monkeys, horns and hooves, which made it possible to consider them omnivores. Giant stone tools were also found there. A logical conclusion followed from this: Gigantopithecus - an ancient anthropoid ape up to 4 meters tall and weighing about half a ton - is another unrealized branch of hominization. It has been established that the time of their extinction coincided with the disappearance of other anthropoid giants - African Australopithecus. A possible reason is climatic cataclysms that have become fatal for large hominids. According to the theories of the so-called cryptozoologists (Greek "cryptos" - secret, hidden), individual Gigantopithecus individuals have survived to our times and exist in areas of the Earth that are difficult for people to reach, giving rise to legends about the "Bigfoot", Yeti, Bigfoot, Almasty and so on. Despite the successes of paleoanthropology, in the evolutionary chain, where the first place is occupied by the ancient apes, from which man descended, there are gaps lasting up to a million years. They are expressed in the absence of links that have scientific - genetic, microbiological, anatomical, etc. - confirmation of the relationship with previous and subsequent types of hominids. There is no doubt that gradually such white spots will disappear, and sensations about the extraterrestrial or divine beginning of our civilization, which are periodically announced on entertainment channels, have nothing to do with real science. For the same reason that not all fish went on land and became tetrapods, not all unicellular became multicellular, not all amphibians became reptiles, not all reptiles became mammals. For the same reason why not all flowers become daisies, not all insects become ants, not all mushrooms become porcini, not all viruses become flu viruses. Each type of living creature is unique and appears only once. The evolutionary history of each species is determined by many different causes and depends on countless accidents. It is quite unbelievable that two evolving species (for example, two different species of monkeys) have exactly the same fate and come to the same result (for example, both turned into a man). It is as incredible as the fact that two writers, without agreeing, will write two absolutely identical novels, or that two absolutely identical peoples speaking the same language will independently arise on two different continents. This question itself is based on two errors. First, he suggests that evolution has some kind of goal to which it stubbornly strives, or at least some kind of "main direction". Some people think that evolution always moves from the simple to the complex. The movement from simple to complex is called "progress" in biology. But evolutionary progress is not a general rule; it is not typical for all living beings, but only for a very small part of them. Many animals and plants in the course of evolution do not become more complicated, but, on the contrary, are simplified - and at the same time they feel great. In addition, in the history of the development of life on earth, it happened much more often that a new species did not replace the old ones, but was added to them. As a result, the total number of species on the planet (species richness, or biodiversity) has gradually increased. Many species died out, but even more new ones appeared. So the man - "added" to the primates, to other monkeys, and did not "replace" them. Secondly, many people mistakenly believe that man is precisely the goal towards which evolution has always striven. But biologists have not found any evidence for this assumption. Of course, if we look at our ancestry, we will see something very similar to the movement towards a predetermined goal - from unicellular to the first animals, then to the first chordates, the first fish, the first quadrupeds, then to reptiles, the animal-toothed lizards, the first mammals, primates, apes, anthropoids and, finally, to humans. But if we look at the pedigree of any other species - for example, a mosquito or a dolphin - we will see exactly the same "purposeful" movement, but not towards a person, but towards a mosquito or a dolphin. By the way, our genealogies with the mosquito coincide all the way from unicellular to primitive worm-like animals and only then diverge. With the dolphin, we have much more common ancestors: our pedigree begins to differ from the dolphin only at the level of ancient mammals, and our more and more ancient ancestors are also the ancestors of the dolphin. We are pleased to consider ourselves "the pinnacle of evolution", but the mosquito and the dolphin have no less reason to consider themselves the pinnacle of evolution, and not us. Each of the living species is the same peak of evolution as we are. Each of them has the same long evolutionary history, each boasting many diverse and amazing ancestors. Man, of course, has something special that other animals do not have. For example, we have the smartest brain and the most complex communication system (speech). True, any other kind of living beings also has at least one unique property or combination of properties (otherwise it simply would not be considered a special species). For example, the cheetah runs faster than all animals and much faster than us. Prove to him that thinking and talking is more important than running fast. He doesn't think so. He would starve to death if he traded fast legs for a big brain. After all, you still need to learn how to use the brain, you need to fill it with some kind of knowledge, and this requires culture. It will be a long time before cheetahs learn to benefit from the big brain, and now you want to eat. A large brain, except for humans, appeared in the course of evolution even in elephants and cetaceans. But they themselves are very large, much larger than us. But in general, evolution has so far very rarely led to the appearance of species with such a large brain. After all, this organ is very expensive for animals. First, the brain consumes a huge amount of calories, so an animal with a large brain needs more food. Secondly, a large brain makes childbirth difficult: our ancestors, before the invention of medicine, therefore had a very high mortality rate during childbirth, both children and mothers died. And most importantly, there are many ways to live well without a big brain, as evidenced by all wildlife around us. It took some unique set of circumstances for natural selection to support brain growth in the apes that became our ancestors. Scientists who study human evolution are struggling to understand what these circumstances were, and they have already managed to find out something, but this is a separate conversation. Last but not least, someone has to be first! We are the first species on this planet smart enough to ask, "Where did I come from and why didn't other animals become like me?" If ants were the first intelligent creatures, they would be tormented by the same question. Will other animal species become sentient in the future? If we, the people, do not interfere with them, do not exterminate them and allow them to quietly evolve, then this is not excluded. Maybe the second kind of intelligent beings will someday be the descendants of the current dolphins, or elephants, or chimpanzees. But evolution is a terribly slow process. To notice at least some evolutionary change in such slowly breeding and slowly maturing animals as chimpanzees, you need to observe them for at least several centuries, and preferably millennia. But we only started observing chimpanzees in the wild a few decades ago. Even if chimpanzees were actually evolving towards "smartness" now, we simply wouldn't be able to notice it. However, I don't think they do. But if all people now moved from Africa to other continents, and Africa would be made into one huge reserve, then in the end the descendants of the current chimpanzees, bonobos or gorillas could well become intelligent. Of course, these will not be people at all, but another kind of intelligent primates. Just have to wait a very long time. Maybe 10 million years, maybe more. Firstly, evolutionary theory does not operate with the term "transformation", spending family ties between humans and modern great apes. Evolution is more complicated than a simple transformation, it is a long process in which multiple external factors are involved. Secondly, for the appearance, selection and consolidation of them in highly organized organisms, huge time intervals are required. short life not even a single individual, but the whole of humanity will not allow you to keep track of evolutionary changes. But man still manages to observe the course of evolution, only on a microscale. Mutations of the simplest organisms are known - microbes and those that have time to acquire k, for example. Thirdly, man did not originate from those modern ones that exist today. Humans, along with a hundred species of others, belong to higher primates. They have a lot between them, and it is based on the fact that once there was a single ancestor. It was a miniature, the size of a rat, which appeared about 70 million years ago and climbed trees. Soon (30-40 million years ago) they separated from it, and then completely replaced it, monkeys and flat-nosed ones. Perhaps, among them, there was a common ancestor, more likely to be similar to, because it is with him that a person has the greatest coincidence of genes. When this ancestor mastered the savannahs, they entrenched important changes, among them: upright posture, as a result of which hands were freed, an increase in the brain. These creatures were no longer monkeys, but they were not yet people, so they were called hominids. The first found remains of them are 9 million years old, since then the species of hominids have been replaced, crowding out each other. Those who could better adapt to the conditions survived, who had a larger brain, who could organize hunting, make tools. Modern people belong to the species of a reasonable person. This species arose about 50,000 years ago and is the only one that has mastered speech. Although the genes of humans and chimpanzees coincide by more than 98%, nevertheless, this is now a parallel branch of the development of animals similar to humans. An example would be the heirs of your great-great-grandfathers' siblings. They would be your relatives because they once came from the same family, but far away, because. have long since crossed the line of second cousins. And if this shift occurs within four generations (that's about 170 years), then imagine what the gap between humans and chimpanzees is if approximately 30 million years have passed.
The question is relevant for people who are opponents of the theory of Charles Darwin, as well as for those who are lost in the wilds of the science of biology. 
Naturally, for such a long period of time, humanity simply will not be able to observe how a monkey turns into a man. common ancestor
Classification
Origin of monkeys
Beginning of hominids
Rukvapitek
Dryopithecus
Gigantopithecus
herbivorous giants
White spots in the biography of Homo sapiens
