• Question: Since we apparently evolved from apes, which I do not believe in, there where "stages" of evolution, these must have involved going from ape, to ape-caveman to caveman to caveman-human to human, but if this evolution is going around, shouldn't we see these type of stages still happening?, like shouldn't there be some ape-caveman people around? And the rest?

    Asked by tosty55 to Aggelos, Andrew, Eileen, Naomi, Shane on 14 Nov 2012. This question was also asked by tkhan.
    • Photo: Andrew Jackson

      Andrew Jackson answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      hi
      the evidence that humans evolved from primates is very strong indeed. The fossil record is great, and clearly shows how our skeleton changed slowly over time until we ended up with our current Homo sapiens shape and form. The reason the other forms, like the neanderthals (cave men types) are not around is that we were better than them, so they died out and we lived – this is the basic way evolution works for all living things.

    • Photo: Naomi Elster

      Naomi Elster answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      We can’t see evolution still happening simply because it takes a very long time for it to happen – millions of years. Most of the evolution theories aren’t that we evolved from the apes we see in the zoo today, but that they and we had a common ancestor many years ago and we evolved at the same time, but evolved differently. So it’s like the chimpanzees are our cousins, not our parents.

      Actually, although it is very rare, sometimes people are born with unusual features that scientists think are “genetic throwbacks” to our ape ancestors. For example, a BBC documentary a few years ago showed a family in Turkey who were quadrupeds – they naturally walked on all fours, like apes. And occassionally you get people with excessive facial hair to the point where they do look more primate than human.

      The evidence that we evolved from primates is there and strong. No one has the right to tell you what to believe but one of the things I learnt the hard way about being a good scientist is that you really shouldn’t ask a question if you’ve already decided what answer you’re going to believe. 🙂

    • Photo: Shane Bergin

      Shane Bergin answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      Evolution happens on a very slow timescale for creatures like humans (homo sapien). We evolved from a creature that is ape like – not actual apes that we see in the zoo. they are another branch of the evolutionary tree.

      you can see evolution happen a faster rate for other forms of life (where life times are much shorter).

      I urge you to read more about it and come up with a point of view based on what you have read. Science is not about trying to trick you into something that you don’t believe. it’s about presenting facts and drawing conclusions based on fact

    • Photo: Eileen Diskin

      Eileen Diskin answered on 16 Nov 2012:

      The evolution of things like apes takes a long time. This is in large part because apes have a long life span.

      There is some evolution that you actually can observe, for things with much shorter life spans. One example of this is the peppered moth. Originally, most of the ones living in the wild were light-coloured. But with the industrial revolution came lots of pollution – so the ones that had darker bits on them survived longer (because they were better camoflauged, and their predators had a harder time finding them!).

      These darker ones therefore did a better job at surviving longer – and so were the ones that were able to produce young. This meant that the darker ones became much more common. And now…its changing back! Because of pollution laws, apparently the lighter ones are once again becoming common.

      So this is an example of how we can see some evolutionary processes occuring, in real life.

Comments

  • Photo: tosty55

    tosty55 commented on :

    Thank you for answering, but as it seems my point has not been taken, I find it great that Evolution, this small idea has grown into such a worldwide accepted form for the start of the Human race, it shows how well we can imagine and understand things, I however am still staying strong on my answer that God is the creator, but that doesn’t mean that Evolution didn’t happen, I mean we did evolve, by that I mean that we grew smarter over the years and so where able to come up with new ideas, but what always puts me of is the fact that the Earth is not as old as we think, this massive age given to the world is just so the Evolution theory could fit properly, and of course people believe it because to them it makes sense, to me it doesn’t.

    Again thank you for answering, I would be interested to discuss this again if you wish.

    • Photo: Andrew

      Andrew commented on :

      hi again tosty55. Im not arguing to try and annoy you so please just bear with me.

      There are lots of separate lines of scientific reasoning and different sources of independent data that tell us the earth is 4.5 billion years old. The evidence comes from things like working out how long different radioactive elements take to decay (give off their radiation and become harmless) or by doing calculations based on the sun’s size and age, or from using living things to calculate how long the earth must have been around or from understanding the geology of the core of the Earth. All of these examples produced dates around 2 to 6 billion years, and more recently very accurate radiometric data (again using radioactive rocks) puts the date very close to 4.5 billion years.

      You can read more here if you want to question these methods http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_Earth

      • Photo: tosty55

        tosty55 commented on :

        Makes sense now, Thanks, but about Evolution, I’m just going to settle on the fact that it might have happened, but not as an extreme, as for the “Evolution of Human” I’m staying with God, about the radioactive rocks, do all rocks contain radioactivity?, or are there special places these rocks are found in?

        • Photo: Andrew

          Andrew commented on :

          hi David

          Very few rocks are truly radioactive, e.g. the kind that can be used to power nuclear reactors, or create nuclear bombs. But, many rocks contain very very small amounts of elements that commonly decay through very quiet radioactive processes. Granite is one such rock and it often contains very small amounts of Uranium (which in large quantities can be used to make bombs and fuel power stations) that decay into Radon by radioactive decay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radon#Natural). Geologists (who study the earth and rocks) can calculate how much uranium has converted to radon, and therefore work out how old the rock is that created it… usually these are very ancient. There is lots of granite and quartz rock in the Wicklow Mountains with the Sugar Loaf being a famous example. These mountains have been dated at 500 million years old.

        • Photo: Andrew

          Andrew commented on :

          .. and for very radioactive rocks containing lots of Uranium ore, you could find them in Australia and South Africa as well as lots of other places (but not Ireland) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_ore. This rock has to be dug up and processed to concentrate the uranium if you want to use it in a nuclear reactor. This is what Iran are currently doing, and has a lot of the rest of the world worried because they suspect they would also like to build a big bomb with it and they dont trust them not to use it.