Earlier this month I asked this question on my blog to see if anyone would be able to answer it. One person wrote and guessed that humans evolved smart enough to preserve monkeys, and that this was a rare instance. But that’s not the answer.

The answer is simple enough: humans didn’t evolve from monkeys!

So yes, this was a trick question, and it took me 30 seconds to realize that.

Humans and monkeys shared a common ancestor as they are both hominids. That doesn’t mean they evolved from each other. It’s like saying “if I evolved from my cousins, then why are my cousins here?”

Published by Geoffrey Liu

A software engineer by trade and a classical musician at heart. Currently a software engineer at Groupon getting into iOS mobile development. Recently graduated from the University of Washington, with a degree in Computer Science and a minor in Music. Web development has been my passion for many years. I am also greatly interested in UI/UX design, teaching, cooking, biking, and collecting posters.

8 thoughts on “The answer to "If humans evolved from monkeys then why are there still monkeys?"

  1. I don’t know If I said it already but …This blog rocks! I gotta say, that I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks, 🙂

    A definite great read..

    -Bill-Bartmann

  2. Cool site, love the info. I do a lot of research online on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks,

    A definite great read…

  3. Another answer: Because humans *are* monkeys. (They are scientifically classified as a type of great ape.) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominidae]

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.