JGJ@ReligionisBullshit Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 I know that we have found several ancestors to modern homo sapiens from early hominids, Australopithicus, Habilis, Erectus, but my question is has any early ancestors been found for Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Lemurs, Orangutans and such? Did they just evolve into their current state and stay there for millions of years while the homo sapien line continued to evolve several times over? I have seen several different phylogeny of humans and they show apes and monkeys but no precursers except a generic Old World, New World, Hominidae and Prosimians. Gorillas and Oragutans both come from the Hominidae line but are almost as different from each other as day and night, what are it's precursers? Why would they not continue to evolve if they just sprang from a single hominid into two entirely different apes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asimov Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 I know that we have found several ancestors to modern homo sapiens from early hominids, Australopithicus, Habilis, Erectus, but my question is has any early ancestors been found for Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Lemurs, Orangutans and such? Did they just evolve into their current state and stay there for millions of years while the homo sapien line continued to evolve several times over? I have seen several different phylogeny of humans and they show apes and monkeys but no precursers except a generic Old World, New World, Hominidae and Prosimians. Gorillas and Oragutans both come from the Hominidae line but are almost as different from each other as day and night, what are it's precursers? Why would they not continue to evolve if they just sprang from a single hominid into two entirely different apes? http://bss.sfsu.edu/holzman/courses/Fall99...cts/gorilla.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuaiDan Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 I know that we have found several ancestors to modern homo sapiens from early hominids, Australopithicus, Habilis, Erectus, but my question is has any early ancestors been found for Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Lemurs, Orangutans and such? Did they just evolve into their current state and stay there for millions of years while the homo sapien line continued to evolve several times over? I have seen several different phylogeny of humans and they show apes and monkeys but no precursers except a generic Old World, New World, Hominidae and Prosimians. Gorillas and Oragutans both come from the Hominidae line but are almost as different from each other as day and night, what are it's precursers? Why would they not continue to evolve if they just sprang from a single hominid into two entirely different apes? Because we're human, hominid evolution gets the spotlight and the preponderance of the research. While research has been conducted into the evolution of non-hominid primates, it probably hasn't been as extensive and hasn't had the interest of the general populace. Other species evolve too, and this has been shown by the fossil record. But why would anyone want to debate the evolution of the lemur when human evolution has so many more implications? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGJ@ReligionisBullshit Posted April 4, 2006 Author Share Posted April 4, 2006 Other species evolve too, and this has been shown by the fossil record. But why would anyone want to debate the evolution of the lemur when human evolution has so many more implications? I'm not wanting to debate it, to the contrary, I'm just looking for more information on primate evolution. The reason is simple: when faced with evolution critics many things get brought up. I like to have all my bases covered and was looking for something that filled in the holes of several family trees. One of the favorite lines of creationists is that we evolved from monkeys/apes which is quite silly and simplistic and not, at all, the picture evolution tries to create. I have had college level anthropology under my belt, and am fully aware of human evolution but not so knowlegeable on the evolution of other primates. With a fuller picture I can understand evolution better. I don't want to be limited to single gene in a single offspring going nuts to create a single gorilla or lemur from a single set of hominid parents and want to make sure there is a fossil record of a broader range of gorillas that were separated to evolve differently. So thanks, Asimov, for the link, it helps and its Bibliography gave me some reading material for primate evolution. Another subject in this area I would like to get into is primate anatomy and physiology since I'm pretty well versed in human anatomy and physiology. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narcissist Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 Richard Dawkin's book, "The Ancestor's Tale" (the first few chapters) discusses this very issue and might be able to provide you with some more answers. I'm actually reading this book right now. I'm just up to the first few chapters (OMG!!! God made me read this book at the right time to answer your question!!! OMG!!!) This page: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-transitional/part2a.html - the "Primates" section mentions some non human primate ancestors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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