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Asked by scruffyduffy to Andrew, Aggelos, Eileen, Naomi, Shane on 11 Nov 2012. This question was also asked by thedazinator, shauna1996.
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Andrew Jackson answered on 11 Nov 2012:
Well, monkeys, apes and lemurs are all different types of primate. The first primate appeared about 55 million years ago, about 10 million years after the dinosaurs went extinct. Over this long time, the apes branched off from the monkeys, lost their tails started to spend more and more time on the ground instead of up in the trees. One type of ape formed complex social groups, started to use tools to alter their environment and created a complex language to communicate. These apes then eventually turned into the first proper humans around 2 million years ago, and here we are today with amazingly complex societies and technology that lets us not only conquer the Earth, but also the moon and now the stars and planets around us. Its an amazing achievement of evolution that we can now get off this rock and go visit our moon and I think soon enough a person will set foot on mars.
Not bad for a monkey that lost its tail!
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Eileen Diskin answered on 19 Nov 2012:
Andrew’s answer about the evolution of monkeys, apes, and lemurs is awesome.
What I think is especially cool about all of this is that as scientists discover more and more fossils, we get a much better picture about what happened. I always thought that it would be so cool to have a job looking for fossils!
Here’s a great, interactive website that shows you how scientists are using some of the fossils as evidence to figure out more information about the origin of humanknd.
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