Essay-ANTHROPOLOGY

I do not believe we humans come from monkeys and there is no scientific evidence to show it either. Even before evolution, humans have always walk on two legs and we continued to do so, and we do not have the skills needed to climb on trees to survive. As for monkeys, God gave them the ability and skills to live in the juggle, climb on trees to protect themselves from the predators, and walk on four legs. According to our textbook, monkeys are one of our closest relatives but that doesn’t mean we come from them. Scientists have conveniently run multiple laboratory tests that support the main tenets of evolution. Specifically, the field scientists have been able to work with the fossil record to answer crucial questions about humans coming from monkeys (Kjærgaard,2011).  The only relation we have with monkeys is that we are both primates. Therefore, we, as humans, did not come from monkeys or any living primate presently. However, we have a common ancestor with the chimpanzees where the chimpanzees and humans evolved in different ways from the ancestor into two separate species or lineages. One of these species or lineages eventually became chimpanzees and gorillas, while the other species or lineage evolved into the earliest human ancestors known as hominids (Langergraber, Prüfer, Rowney, Boesch, Crockford, Fawcett, & Robbins,2012).

Since the diversion of the earliest hominid species from the ancestor, multiple species are similar to humanlike creatures. Humans did not come from monkeys but had a common ancestor; for example, it is evident that we are from one ancestor since we share about 93% of the DNA (Whiten,2011).  Based on differences and similarities between the humans’ and the rhesus monkeys’ DNA, indeed, they shared a common ancestor. For example, the common ancestor identified by the fossil records as an unnamed primate fossil from Myanmar was discovered in 2009.

The concept of sharing a common ancestor gives rise to another major misunderstanding regarding the question if it is true that we came from monkeys. Many challenges the idea of sharing a common ancestor by insisting that evolution is a linear process that involves one species evolving into another (Koonin,2011).  However, it is important to understand that evolution is a branching process that involves one species giving rise to two or more species. It can continue to split again and again. For example, with the humans and monkeys, we had a common ancestor from where we continued to split into different species and generations (Perelman, Johnson, Roos, Seuánez, Horvath, Moreira, & Schneider,2011).

References

Kjærgaard, P. C. (2011). ‘Hurrah for the missing link!’: a history of apes, ancestors and a crucial piece of evidence. Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 65(1), 83-98.

Koonin, E. V. (2011). The logic of chance: the nature and origin of biological evolution. FT press.

Langergraber, K. E., Prüfer, K., Rowney, C., Boesch, C., Crockford, C., Fawcett, K., ... & Robbins, M. M. (2012). Generation times in wild chimpanzees and gorillas suggest earlier divergence times in great ape and human evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(39), 15716-15721.

Perelman, P., Johnson, W. E., Roos, C., Seuánez, H. N., Horvath, J. E., Moreira, M. A., ... & Schneider, M. P. C. (2011). A molecular phylogeny of living primates. PLoS Genet, 7(3), e1001342.

Whiten, A. (2011). The scope of culture in chimpanzees, humans, and ancestral apes. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366(1567), 997-1007.