Any objective observer will admit that chimpanzees look more like humans than any other animal. We can read their body language and hence chimpanzees are often used in advertising. The theory of evolution offers a reasonable explanation why we and chimpanzees look so alike.
Chimpanzees did not get left behind in the progress of evolution, and humans are not descended from chimpanzees, but at some point in the past as recently as 6 million years ago, they shared a common ancestor. At a more remote time some 30 million years ago, both shared a common ancestor with monkeys. In evolutionary terms, monkeys, apes and humans are neither inferior nor superior to one another, just different.
Although we may think of ourselves as the high point of evolution, evolution by natural selection has no goal or direction. There can be no perfection in nature, just endless variety, from bugs to humans. Like it or not, we are part of that variety – the human variety as opposed to the chimpanzee variety.
Source information: Human Beginnings in South Africa. HJ Deacon & Janette Deacon.
