Why did the common ancestor diverge into apes and humans?

Precursors of modern humans and modern apes diverged from their common ancestor about 7 million years ago, but anatomically modern humans appeared just 250,000 years ago at most, possibly much later. While there are very likely many complex interactions between society, environment, food supply, etc. read more

Precursors of modern humans and modern apes diverged from their common ancestor about 7 million years ago, but anatomically modern humans appeared just 250,000 years ago at most, possibly much later. read more

Since the 1990s, the estimate has again been pushed towards more-remote times, because studies have found evidence for a slowing of the molecular clock as apes evolved from a common monkey-like ancestor with monkeys, and humans evolved from a common ape-like ancestor with non-human apes. read more

Humans did not evolve from monkeys. Humans are more closely related to modern apes than to monkeys, but we didn't evolve from apes, either. Humans share a common ancestor with modern African apes, like gorillas and chimpanzees. Scientists believe this common ancestor existed 5 to 8 million years ago. Shortly thereafter, the species diverged into two separate lineages. read more