Poll: Do you believe that humans evolved from non-human species?

There's way too much evidence. I thought this might tie in nicely with the other religion topics as of late :)

Except the fact the "missing link" has never been found.

Also, in light of the theory of evolution, explain the Cambrian explosion.

well, we're not something you can figure out in an equation.

we are the genetic mutation

(I figure this counts as a first-post of sorts ;-)

Poor monkeys.

The missing link is an oversimplification that has never really been an issue. What is a missing link? A step in our evolution that hasn't been discovered yet? Why would anyone expect every step to have been discovered? We have found many many precursor species of Homo sapien sapien. Have we found every single one no. We have gotten very close to the common ancestor of humans and chimps though. There is a gap in the fossil record from an era that there aren't many fossils found in what we expect are the crucial areas. If there were not many specimans of the species we might never find them. Evolution does not live or die by their discovery.

Unfortunately, there has never been anything to tie us directly to chimps. Yes, some primitive forms of man had similarities to chimps, but there are very important genetic differences between early man and chimps. Yes, we share alot in common with chimps, but that just means we are similar life forms, not necessarily evolutionally linked. That's why it's a theory and not a fact.

And the theory of evolution falls apart when examining the fossil record of the Cambrian period. Also, if we are linked to chimps, why have chimps not evolved along similar lines as humans?

Also, if we are linked to chimps, why have chimps not evolved along similar lines as humans?

Because, evolution isn't a magic director that says "all of you over here, you chimps, you're now humans". A group of chimps evoloved, not all of them. It wasn't a matter of the chimps being invalid to their habitat, the human (or leading towards human) ones were simply better. So long as there were few enough of each though, there's no reason the chimps would go extinct. It's when the new hunter is so good that no food remains for the older species that one is completly replaced.

No Talcot... humans didn't evolve from chimps. Chimps and humans both evolved from a common ancestor... *that's* the theory. There are primates today like apes which probably somewhat resemble the common ancestor, but there is no species currently existant which we could have evolved from, presumably... because evolution doesn't just stop for a species.

Well... except alligators.

Damn. You're right.

Ask me about dinosaurs. That's more my area anyways ;-)

I remember when the dinosaurs were the new kids on the block. It was all about Trilobites when I was a kid.

Dear god!
Boy band dinosaurs?!!

We share 99% of our genetic code with chimps. That's damn good evidence. Chimps and man shared the same lineage to somewhere between 5 and 10 million years ago. That is a period that is not recorded well in the fossil record in East Africa which till recently has been considered the cradle of humanity. This situation might change in light of recent discoveries in the Sahal region of western Africa.

Actually, we don't share 99% of our genetic code with chimps. That has been misreported in the media for a long time. It's an oversimplification. We share several key base pair sequences with chimps, and the chromosomal structures of the gene code are almost identical, but when the structures are mapped down to the genes, the human gene code is more complex and larger than chimps.

Humans and chimps are similar, but so are humans and most ape species. Just like domestic breeds of dogs and wolves (or coyotes I can never keep them straight, which ever one isn't from the lupine genus) are similar, but not exact.

Yes closely related species have similar genomes. Dogs, coyotes, and wolves share a very recent common ancestor, they can all even interbreed.

please give a reference for your state statement about the oversimplification. It doesn't make sense since genes are sequences of base pairs so if you share the sequence of base pairs you share the genes.

Gordon, I would expect you, of all people, to be careful when wording something like this.� It's not that we evolved from non-human species, but from what was simply and earlier form of what we are now.� The way you worded it also suggests that we are the end product, which we clearly are not.

leah, you forget that gordon doesn't speak english.

you're right.� he only speaks creep.

where's the option for "some of the species hasn't finished evolving yet"?

Or the option that some of the gene pool needs a strong dose of chlorine. :)

"there are plenty of fish in the sea... too bad the water's polluted!"

jen

The question isn't about the future but the past. So that wouldn't be an answer choice but a totally new topic .

um... presumably none of the species has finished evolving. Evolution doesn't just stop.

not sure, don't care.

I believe we evolved from Martians.... oh wait.. that was a movie.

I beleveived we evolved from Pete Best you insensative Clod!

No Pete Best is a species that evolved from Humans. As Nietzsche put it.

Man is nothing but a rope across an abyss leading from the animal to the Pete Best.

I suppose you *WOULD* know.� You are old enough to remeber what heppened!

Aliens came and fucked the monkey. Everyone knows that.

*tries to shake out the mental image*

I found the word "non-human" odd, too. I wasn't sure if that meant creatures from outer space or evolving from other animal species...or both, I suppose.

I used non-human because of the common usage non-human primates.

I voted "no". On a related note I really hope that there's intelligent life somewhere in outer space - might increase the possibility that an intelligent life-form could develop on this planet in a not so distant future as well�;-)

Really not sure. I'd like to believe we didn't, but there is a lot of evidence against that. If we did, we must have had some serious help from the man upstairs. Is all I have to say.

Well, everyone has their own man upstairs.

The building I live in... his name is tom.
He's on housing assistance and, technically, isn't supposed to be living there, since it's his wife's apartment, and they're legally separated.

eric and i had Perry above us - he was the man upstairs.

we'd say something like, "someone up there must like us. The man upstairs is smiling upon us. Thanks, Perry."

I'm in a townhouse! I have no man upstairs unless I'm downstairs and Paul is up there. Is Paul my man upstairs? :)

Why do you want to believe that we didn't?

Why do you want to believe that we didn't?

Because:

1. It means we're animals.

2. I'd like to have a good reason to make atheists look stupid,