"ape to man"

[wilser]

I saw this documentary over the weekend where they were supporting Darwin's theory through archeological discoveries and kept wondering, if 1,000,000 years ago, as they concluded, an ape started walking on 2 legs, then 800,000 years ago started using tools, then 500,000 years ago started hunting and having a meat diet in which the increased protein caused rapid brain growth which led to higher intelligence, how come we haven't seen any similar development happen with any other species?

[Otso]

Because the other species weren't as intelligently designed...

[EyeH8†]

It is happening. Are you going to live 250,000 years to see the change? It doesn't happen overnight

[Relic]

I had always wondered about stuff like that. You know - you look in a book and you see this neat time-line graphic of man developing. And it's so precise: X-million years ago, we looked like chimps, then suddenly Y-million year ago we're were walking upright, then Z-million years ago we're making stone tools and are developing culture, all as though the change from X to Y to Z happened over night in each case.
Nice and neat. One day we're chimps, the next upright-walkers etc.
The truth is that change happens very slowly almost imperceptibly and over thousands of years and does not necessarily plateau on one set of traits. There is a lot of overlap, so much so that development is virtually unrecognizable in the moment. Now back to my cave..

[wilser]

Originally Posted by EyeH8†

It is happening. Are you going to live 250,000 years to see the change? It doesn't happen overnight

well, apes are the same as they were all those years ago, birds, bears, etc. I'm not saying we should be seeing it today, but if that in fact is what happened, shouldn't we see species today that are vastly different than what they were all those years ago based on archeological finds as well?

[Relic]

Originally Posted by wilser

well, apes are the same as they were all those years ago, birds, bears, etc. I'm not saying we should be seeing it today, but if that in fact is what happened, shouldn't we see species today that are vastly different than what they were all those years ago based on archeological finds as well?

Nope, species all develop at different rates. Crocodilians developed before the dinosaurs and look virtually the same today as they did then, however they have changed in size, habitat, etc so they are still developing albiet on an extremely slower scale.

[DudeistMonk]

Hosted by a Baldwin right?

To answer your question: We have its just not important enough to make a TV special about. You can trace the evolutionary path of many creatures. Heck you can go to the pet store and see engineered evolution at work when you put a yorkie next to a shepard.

Also the reason we began down the path of intelligence is because we developed the ability to walk on two legs which gave us the ability to manipulate and understand objects which we fashioned into tools, from there we became very prosperous and our brain power began to develop as our children took longer to mature.

We do see this in chimps who have begun using tools and hunting, because they have thumbs...if they where driven out to the plains because of a lack of jungle food sources they would begin to become more human in nature.

[JohnnyPustular]

There is an inherent, though probably non-intentional, judgment in your question-- that humans are more evolved than other creatures. True evolutionary thought does not make the distinction of a creature/plant being more evolved. Instead, creatures/plants are optimally evolved to their environment. For example, human intelligence would not make a shark a more developed killing machine, nor would it make the ebolla virus more resistant. While I never want to meet either, I have to admit that they are very well evolved to their environment.

Many animals and plants are vastly different from what they used to be. Take the friendly robin who chirps by your window each morning. He used to be a dinosaur!

[vinny]

Why are there still apes? Maybe they didn't get enough meat.

[Ívar Þórólfsson]

Clearly we are descendants from Golgafrinchan telephone sanitizers, account executives, hairdressers etc. who crashed here on earth about 2 million years ago.

[flipper_gv]

Cause being "intelligent" was part of our evolution. Humans evolved to live especially in
society. So, we evolved that way. Sharks are at the peak of their evolution (they haven'thad major changes in thousands of year) and are perfectly adapted to their condition. We aren't adapted to live underwater or in the desert, we simply adapted to live in society.Therefore, an improved language system was necessary for us to communicate better with others. That is what made us intelligent. It is our incredible capacity to describe precise things to others, and therefore understanding better things,
that made our intelligence.

[ryco]

Don't forget the genetic experiments on humans from the aliens to develop us from apes.

[The Golden Boy]

What is the average height of a man these days?

What was it 150 years ago?

[Gard]

Originally Posted by JohnnyPustular

There is an inherent, though probably non-intentional, judgment in your question-- that humans are more evolved than other creatures. True evolutionary thought does not make the distinction of a creature/plant being more evolved. Instead, creatures/plants are optimally evolved to their environment. For example, human intelligence would not make a shark a more developed killing machine, nor would it make the ebolla virus more resistant. While I never want to meet either, I have to admit that they are very well evolved to their environment.

Many animals and plants are vastly different from what they used to be. Take the friendly robin who chirps by your window each morning. He used to be a dinosaur!

Excellent explanation!

Greater intelligence might have evolved numerous times in various species, but because it did not confer any great advantage to the individual that acquired the trait, it was not passed on as a trait to more progeny than those of non-greater intelligence.

Evolution is not an assembly line that goes smoothly and quickly from this station to the next, adding the next "part" until you get a human (or a mockingbird, or a boa constrictor), it's very hit and miss, there are jumps, backtracks, false starts, followed by incredibly long "lulls". Some creatures have been in "lulls" for hundreds of millions of years (tuatara), others change constantly (pick any of millions of strains of bacterium).

As for "why are there still apes", that's simple actually. It is because there are always multiple lineages within a family of species (aka "genus"). Chimpanzees, especially bonobos (pygmy chimpanzee), are not a "precursor" species to humans, instead they are an offshoot of a common ancestor, humans and chimpanzees split from that common ancestor several million years ago and both lineages continued to evolve into their present forms over the intervening time - we did not "evolve from" anything that is alive today, we are more "cousins" than "brothers" to our nearest relatives.

[Gard]

Originally Posted by Ívar Þórólfsson

Clearly we are descendants from Golgafrinchan telephone sanitizers, account executives, hairdressers etc. who crashed here on earth about 2 million years ago.

42????

Ford??? Ford Prefect??? Is that you????

[DudeistMonk]

Cause being "intelligent" was part of our evolution. Humans evolved to live especially in
society. So, we evolved that way. Sharks are at the peak of their evolution (they haven'thad major changes in thousands of year) and are perfectly adapted to their condition. We aren't adapted to live underwater or in the desert, we simply adapted to live in society.Therefore, an improved language system was necessary for us to communicate better with others. That is what made us intelligent. It is our incredible capacity to describe precise things to others, and therefore understanding better things,
that made our intelligence.

Agreed but more important than speech (initially) was the other uniquely human ability to grab objects...The fossil record shows that we where upright walking apes that scavenged bone marrow (bashing bones with rocks) and ate roots before we developed advanced, tool making and communication skills...Our brains are a byproduct of our legs not the other way around.

[MakiSupaStar]

To add confusion to it all, I saw a cool NOVA a little while ago that proposed that evolution didn't occur in a linear fashion, but rather it occurred in a manner that created several different types of manlike species, which eventually went extinct and formed the modern day homosapien. This was based upon the discovery of several "hobbit" like skeletons and fossils. So perhaps Lord of the Rings wasn't that far fetched afterall, with it's hobbits, elves, dwarves, et al.

[T-Bird]

^^^^^ Amen to that. It's a blessing that the other Golgafrinchans died in extintion, serves them right for trying to get rid of our ancestors.

Sam

[Gard]

Originally Posted by T-Bird

^^^^^ Amen to that. It's a blessing that the other Golgafrinchans died in extintion, serves them right for trying to get rid of our ancestors.

Sam

...can I interest anyone in a gynnantonyx?

[Ívar Þórólfsson]

Originally Posted by Gard

42????

Ford??? Ford Prefect??? Is that you????

Originally Posted by T-Bird

^^^^^ Amen to that. It's a blessing that the other Golgafrinchans died in extintion, serves them right for trying to get rid of our ancestors.

Sam

Damn right!