• Question: hi jasmine can apes grow up to be like us humans

    Asked by sweetie to Jasmine on 26 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Jasmine Penny

      Jasmine Penny answered on 26 Jun 2013:


      Hi @sweetie! Great question. Well they kind of already have! Let me explain…all organisms are grouped into different categories based on the characteristics they share. Humans are in the group Hominidae and we share that group with chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. In fact it has been estimated that the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees lived five million years ago! This ancestor shared 99% of our genes!

      You can see some of the similarities between apes and us. The internal organs of African apes are arranged in the same way to us and their bones are very similar. They also don’t have tails and several important blood type systems are the same.

      So essentially we have learnt and developed from the Apes! However if an ape is born an ape – it will always be an ape for the rest of it’s life.

Comments