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Are we humans descendants of primates?

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Humans and monkeys are both primates. But humans are not descended from monkeys or any other primate living today. We do share a common ape ancestor with chimpanzees. It lived between 8 and 6 million years ago. But humans and chimpanzees evolved differently from that same ancestor. read more

Not only are we descendants of primates, we are primates. The order Primates consists of related animals with grasping hands, forward-facing eyes, and slow maturation. Primates include animals such as lemurs, monkeys and apes, and we humans are classified as apes. Chimpanzees are more closely related to us than they are to gorillas. read more

One of the most persistent myths, however, concerns the relationship of humans to great apes, a group of primates that includes the gorilla, orangutan and chimpanzee. Someone who believes the myth will say, "If evolution exists, then humans must be descended directly from apes. read more

Within this context, we explored the issue of whether we're "descended from monkeys", by taking a look at a phylogeny of relevant primates: The issues that we noted were: "Apes", as defined as orangutans, gorillas, and chimps, but not humans, is paraphyletic. read more

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