• Question: If humans evolved from apes why don't apes in jungles turn into humans?

    • Photo: Jimi Wills

      Jimi Wills answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      I takes a long time for animals to evolve.

      Evolution occurs because DNA gets damaged. The damage can result in a small (or big) change in the children of an animal. If that change is good for them then they are more likely to survive, if it is bad then they are less likely to survive. So the good genes accumulate through the generations, and over thousands of years species can slowly evolve.

      BUT one theory says that humans evolved because of a bad gene… we lost our hair… this meant that there was nothing for the babies to cling onto, and so mum had to carry the babies in her arms… so she had to stand upright. After this, genes that made it easier to stand upright accumulated, and humans evolved.

    • Photo: Chris Conselice

      Chris Conselice answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      Because humans did not come from apes.

      apes and humans had a common ancestor which looked probably like neither humans or apes. Also, this was millions of years ago. It takes at least that long to evolve even slightly into another species, so you would have to wait a few million years to see what apes evolve into but it would not be the same as humans most likely.

    • Photo: Hayley Moulding

      Hayley Moulding answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      Maybe they will!!! No I am joking. It takes thousands and thousands of years to evolve and because apes and humans had a common ancestor. Like you and your brother might have the same grandfather!! Humans and apes have an ape-like creature in common! So don’t worry, the apes in the jungles won’t turn into humans…at least for another million and million of years.