Question: Did we originate from monkeys

Michel Dugon answered on 13 Nov 2014:

It’s actually a misconception to think that we originate from monkeys.

Think about evolution through time like branches growing from a tree. First, you have the trunk: the common ancestor to all forms of life on Earth. Then the trunk separates into a few very big branches (plants, animals and fungi). On the animal branch of the tree, small branches have started to grow. Through time (hundreds of millions of years) many branches have developed on the main animal branch. Some carry many smaller branches and twigs (each small branch represent another animal group), some have stopped growing (extinct animals without any descendants).

The branch that carries the ancestor to all human beings and all monkeys diverged from other mammal branches some 55 million years ago. The human branch (hominidae) separated from other apes some 15 million years ago.

The common ancestor to all apes and human beings does not exist anymore. It disappeared a long time ago. It wasn’t a type of ape or a monkey you can see in a zoo today. It was another animal that “fathered” us all. There is not more similarity between that ancestor and us than between that ancestor and a modern chimpanzee.

Apes and human beings each have their own branch on the tree of evolution, but these two branches are attached to the same larger, bigger, older branch that carries all primates.