Uhhhh, we're screwed!

[dcunning30]

http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/ ... volve.html

Two thoughts come to mind:

1) In practical terms, what does all this mean?

2) When you visit the zoo and observe the chimps, who do you believe more, your own common sense, or the scientists?

[ATI_7500]

Chims don't have politicians, so it's no surprise that they are generally more evolved.

[Souichiro]

It just says that the genes have evolve/changed more. Better suitable for monkey's

Doesn't mean a thing.

Humans make life easier for themselves with tools not by evolving..

[dcunning30]

It just says that the genes have evolve/changed more. Better suitable for monkey's

Doesn't mean a thing.

Humans make life easier for themselves with tools not by evolving..

Yea, that's kinda what I gathered.

It's almost like "News Flash!  Ants have more legs than humans!"

[beaky]

It just says that the genes have evolve/changed more. Better suitable for monkey's

Doesn't mean a thing.

Humans make life easier for themselves with tools not by evolving..

You're partly right, and partly wrong:

First of all, chimps are not monkeys.
Second, this apparent continued gene variation  means something... but the jury's still out on exactly what it means. This notion that homo sapiens is the ultimate animal, all creatures who haven't grown more like us are inferior, and chimps will eventually become human is a load of nonsense. It's like the old "if dinosaurs hadn't died out, they'd have become humanoid lizards" thing... it ain't necessarily so. Humans became what they are because very special conditions provided the pressure to force such evolution... and unfortunately, the myth that we'll just keep getting "better" thanks to evolution is also nonsense. We've made astonishing strides in behavior, but deep down inside we're still neurotic apes, and probably always will be.
Evolutionary success ("survival of the fittest") is simply adapting well to environmental change, not becoming bigger, stronger, or even smarter.

Some of the most successful organisms on Earth, like the cockroach and the horseshoe crab, evolved into perfection for their particular niche eons ago, and haven't changed much at all, except to generally get a little smaller.
 Mutations happen at random sometimes (or so it appears), but the changes that don't help die out with the organisms that possess them, and for something like a cockroach, there's no need at all to become something different.
Last, our tool-using abilities came about through an evolutionary process, and... chimps use tools. And I'm not talking about tools made by humans. They use rocks to bust open nuts, sticks to dig out insects, and... like us, they use weapons sometimes against each other.
We're master manipulators of our environment, but not the only ones who use tools. Even some birds use tools to solve problems.

[H]

We're master manipulators of our environment, but not the only ones who use tools.

...but that's what makes humans self-descriptively superior -- more frequently using their tools improperly. :-?

8-)

[beaky]

We're master manipulators of our environment, but not the only ones who use tools.

...but that's what makes humans self-descriptively superior -- more frequently using their tools improperly. :-?

8-)

Yeah, we could be the only animals capable of hubris...

[H]

Yeah, we could be the only animals capable of hubris...

Most others haven't had the inclination to keep practicing it, let alone perfect it.

8-)

[DONTREADMYUSERNAME]

well supposedly according to my biology teacher, the reason humans became humans goes something like this.

around...... uhh lets say along time ago...... we were primates. Chimps, monkeys whatever you want to call it we were hairy, and walked on our knuckles. Then our genes mutated and one of the most defining mutations was..... our thumbs. With imposable thumbs we were able to create more complex tools and processes. And with each new advancedment our brains became more and more stimulated and also slowly became larger.This also evolved our brains to create more complex tools and processes. But, there was a problem. The larger brains made it harder for us to give birth. So the fetus was born at a less devloped state and with less insticts. So this requiers us to nurture our young for longer periods of time, somewhere around 5-9 years. If you look at most other animals on this planet, most offspring are living independently in about a year or so. So, according to my teacher, scientist are now pondering whether the human race can evolve mentally any further due to this problem.

thats about it for my evolution lecture, i want a 3 page paper on the devlopment of the human brain by Monday

[beaky]

well supposedly according to my biology teacher, the reason humans became humans goes something like this.

around...... uhh lets say along time ago...... we were primates. Chimps, monkeys whatever you want to call it we were hairy, and walked on our knuckles. Then our genes mutated and one of the most defining mutations was..... our thumbs. With imposable thumbs we were able to create more complex tools and processes. And with each new advancedment our brains became more and more stimulated and also slowly became larger.This also evolved our brains to create more complex tools and processes. But, there was a problem. The larger brains made it harder for us to give birth. So the fetus was born at a less devloped state and with less insticts. So this requiers us to nurture our young for longer periods of time, somewhere around 5-9 years. If you look at most other animals on this planet, most offspring are living independently in about a year or so. So, according to my teacher, scientist are now pondering whether the human race can evolve mentally any further due to this problem.

thats about it for my evolution lecture, i want a 3 page paper on the devlopment of the human brain by Monday  ;D

But chimps have two sets of opposable thumbs: hands and feet. You'd think they'd have surpassed us by now, if that were the only criteria. for getting into advanced tool-making and tool use.
 You should ask your teacher why our mutations took the path they did, and why chimps and gorillas ended up staying much as they were when our evolutionary  lines diverged. Nobody knows the whole story, of course, but there's a lot more to it than "it just happened".

I predict that in the future, either all women will have hips that are four feet wide, or babies will just get a CPU upgrade on their first birthday....

[DONTREADMYUSERNAME]

well he says that it takes a looooooooong time for this to happen and that chimps may be evolving into human-like creatures before our very eyes. it won't happen in our lifetimes, and not even in our grandchildrens granchildrens life times...... We seem to forget that we have only had humans on earth for around 30,000 years. dinosaurs were here for [glow=yellow,2,300]hundreds of millions of years![/glow] So in the big picture we've only just arrived. We lose sight of the big picture too much.

There are just too many tiny tiny variables that affect evolution, everything from climate to the scarcity of food can affect the paths. One of the main things could be that maybe long ago there was less food for us and we had to come up with new methods of finding food. New complex tools, complex methods. This cause our brains to grow yada yada yada..... and we are here now.

[H]

well supposedly according to my biology teacher, the reason humans became humans goes something like this.

around...... uhh lets say along time ago...... we were primates. Chimps, monkeys whatever you want to call it we were hairy, and walked on our knuckles. Then our genes mutated and one of the most defining mutations was..... our thumbs. With imposable thumbs we were able to create more complex tools and processes. And with each new advancedment our brains became more and more stimulated and also slowly became larger.This also evolved our brains to create more complex tools and processes. But, there was a problem. The larger brains made it harder for us to give birth. So the fetus was born at a less devloped state and with less instincts. So this requires us to nurture our young for longer periods of time, somewhere around 5-9 years. If you look at most other animals on this planet, most offspring are living independently in about a year or so. So, according to my teacher, scientist are now pondering whether the human race can evolve mentally any further due to this problem.

We're still primates and, with certain ingested stimuli, may yet walk on knuckles -- one's own or someone else's; depending upon weight and the footware, the thumbs can also be mutated, certainly mangled, while in this condition. Thumbs are often imposing, as well, not uncommonly going where unwanted. So, too, human brains are still increasing: many beget swelled heads, although their complexity and ability to use tools in the process is in question and is definitely a problem. In light of this, the fetus may be born in a less developed state but it is questionable as to what instincts it will ever acquire and many, if not most, require -- certainly, seek -- nurturing for their entire existance, independantly or otherwise. As to humans as a race, in their science, itself, they have proven to continue their mental involvement.


There you go, DONTREADMYUSERNAME; I'll post this real quick to beat that Monday deadline but I'm a bit of a conservationist so I've sqeezed it onto the one page.

8-)

[YSHT]

OK...

Can I just alert everyone to the fact it says that chimps GENES have evolved more, not anything to do with intelligence, brain stumuli and opposable thumbs, it's possible that (of late) their genes have changed ever so slightly because of habitat chage, not producing any visible changes, as a small addition? So their evolution could even be our responsibility, i suppose. . . :-?

[Ravang]

Here's a question, if people came from chimps why are they still here?

[dcunning30]

Here's a question, if people came from chimps why are they still here?

Some chimps were too dumb to evolve into human beings, but those chimps that got left behind ended up evolving and evolving without getting anywhere.  Just a big waste of evolutionary energy.  Just think of it as the chimp version of the hampster running wheel.  

hmmmm, the evolutionary running wheel, I like it!   8-)