Men Came from the Apes: Misunderstood Evolution Theory

People nowadays clearly know that Darwins Theory about evolution became
controversy among scientists. They argue that men are not descended from the apes.
Significant evidences such as fossil and molecular biology show that organisms may evolve
from previous organisms, including humans. What modern people know about evolution
theory is a clich statement stating that Men evolved from the apes. John D. Morris (2006)
says that he denied the idea that men came from the apes. He insists that both men and
apes came from the same hypothetical ape-like ancestor. So, to understand and to educate
misunderstanding people about the evolution theory in relation to humans, this essay aims
to provide a discussion about evidences and ideas that deny the clich statement.
Evolution theory states that modern organisms are descendants of ancient
organisms. Early earth has extreme atmosphere and it is impossible for complex organisms
to live, except single-cell organism. Therefore, single-cell organism is the first organism to
live on earth. All modern organisms are descended from them. If we all have the same
ancestor, then why is there diversity among organisms? Diversity occurs when organism
decides to survive. This leads to adaptation and changes in physiology reaction,
morphology, or behavior. Moreover, the accumulation of change of course makes the new
organism look different from their ancestor. For instance, during carboniferous age, fish
evolved into amphibians and then reptiles in order to search for food in land. But then, why
does fish still exist? It is because some of ancient fish do not need to evolve in order to
survive; they have enough food underwater. This also applies to humans and apes. Apes like
baboon, gorilla and chimpanzee come from one ancestor but they do not change much due
to their beneficial habitat.
Building from the idea of diversity, this section illustrates that human is also still
evolving. Although there is still chimpanzee, our ancestor changes so much into todays
human (Homo sapiens). First Homo sapiens might have split from chimpanzee evolution
route million years ago. But we cannot precisely determine it, because evolution occurs over
a long time and gradually. It is estimated that early human came from Africa. Some of
ancient African human migrated in search for another home. This migration changes the way
they live over the time due to adaptation. If we observe people around the world, they are
obviously different from one region to another. This indicates that even though we are in
Homo sapiens phase, we are still evolving. The evidence of this phenomenon can be seen
from Inuit race. They have short and big body in order to survive in arctic. People from
Indonesia of course do not need this kind of morphology, because we live in tropical country.
Another example, athletes heart is supposed to be bigger than average human. This
adaptation can lead to micro evolution.
Fossil evidence shows similarity between humans and apes. Almost all skeletons
from humans skull until tarsal similar to those of apes. Humans skull holds more brain
volume than apes. This shows how human develop social learning and language.
Furthermore, apes rib is relatively big to their body due to bent locomotion. But since human
is upright in locomotion, they do not need a big rib. Talking about locomotion, the noticeable
different is that human has developed bipedalism. We all know that apes use both upper and
lower limb in locomotion. According to a scientist from University of Arizona, ancient human
developed bipedalism because it saves energy than quadrupedal knuckle-walking. Both
humans and apes eye also share similarity; their eyes point forward in the same direction.

The current debate about whether men evolved from the apes or not is an interesting
point on molecular biology evolution and divergence times. Takahata (1995) observed that
chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than gorillas. He used DNA sequence from
different genome of human, chimpanzee, and gorilla and found that human and chimpanzee
split 4,7 million years ago. Further experiment showed that human and chimpanzee also
share identical DNA sequence up to 98% and chromosome. In Biology, we know that
insertion and deletion can also affect DNA sequence through mutation. Therefore, our
ancestor experienced the mutation due to adaptation and over the time evolved. And when
human and chimpanzee split, their DNA sequence will not be the same again.
The evidence presented in this essay has shown that men are not descendent from
the apes but descendent from the same common ancestor as apes. Evolution theory never
states that human evolved from the apes or all organisms have to be fully evolved. It
depends on geographic and climate condition, instinct to survive, adaptation, and mutation
factor. Humans have different evolution route from chimpanzees, even gorillas and other
primates. Therefore, saying that human evolved from chimpanzee or other great primates is
wrong. But, people nowadays, especially in Indonesia, still do not know about this. So,
instead of saying Men came from the apes, why do not we say According to evolution
theory, men and apes came from the same ancestor.

Source:
https://discourse.biologos.org/t/adam-eve-and-human-population-genetics-part-11addressing-critics-poythress-chimpanzees-and-dna-identity-continued-the-biologosforum/542
http://www.livescience.com/474-controversy-evolution-works.html
http://www.livescience.com/3996-humans-chimps-split.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolutionary_genetis
https://www.icr.org/article/3109/

Name: Alif Muhammad Fadli

No. Id: 153030005246
Class : 1-A