Chimpanzee next human?

[haloman]

I was thinking we are so closely related to monkey and when looking at a picture of evolution we started out as a monkey to being with. right? if so they could become another type of human in a matter of speaking. I don't know much about evolution so if I'm wrong in any way tell me.

[InfiniteNow]

Evolution, quite simply, is a process of change. Most commonly, it is understood in context of natural selection, as put forth by Darwin, whereby genetic mutations occur all of the time. Some of those mutations will be beneficial in a given environment and hence will increase in number, while other mutations will be detrimental in a given environment and will decrease in number. Please note that when I speak of the change in number, it is generally over several generations, and it wouldn't show up until many sets of offspring having the same mutations interacted with that environment.

 

Like a callous on feet. Probably just a random mutation, but it sure proved useful back before shoes were invented, so it tended to increase in frequency (the genetic predisposition to be able to form a callous).

 

So, new types of life are occurring each day. Everytime an animal has a baby, it's a new rung on the evolutionary ladder. So yeah, there can, and almost certainly will be, new types of humans as the years progress. Although still connected to the same trunk, it will likely be a bit separate of a branch on the evolutionary tree from the chimp.

 

And that's no monkey business. :P

[Boerseun]

If you ask (with the thread title) whether chimps will eventually fill the niche humans are currently taking up once humans have exited stage left, well, I guess they very well could! It will take a few million years still, though, but all the basics are there; they have opposable thumbs, they are inquisitive, if left alone for another few million or so years they will probably walk upright 100% of the time in order to free their hands to carry stuff and manipulate their environment. They already walk upright for quite a fair percentage of the time, but they still tend to "knuckle" it. Their hips still have a way to go to facilitate this.

 

But it has been observed how a chimp 'invent' something, and how the knowledge of this 'invention' was disseminated through the troop. A chimp in Japan was observed to wash potatoes in water to get the grit off. She was the first to do it, and nobody showed her. She went on to show the rest of the guys, and this knowledge have since been handed down to their own children. This could be said to be the beginning of 'culture'.

 

But in order or them to come to their full to fill the niche humans are currently filling, humans first have to exit the scene. Humans are notorious for not taking well to competition...

[Mohit Pandey]

There is only 1% difference between the DNA of Chimpanzee and human. So there is little duobt that Chimpanzee will be next human. But it will take millions of years.:)

[InfiniteNow]

B)

 

Yeah... wow. I totally missed the point of this question, and I missed it hard! :shrug:

 

 

Chimps may take on more qualities that current humans display, but they will be yet another species category not yet defined (while like human, still not human) when/if they do.

[Drip Curl Magic]

a while back I saw this program on the discovery channel.

 

It was about the future of earth and it's species.

 

It seemed really outragious and exclusive.

 

It kept on going and going and going. Predicting the fate of the world millions of years into the future.

 

They predicted that Giant spiders would be farmers of the last living mammal- a tiny and pathetic rodent.

 

They preditced that sharks would evolve even bigger and smarter... and would have neon glowing stripes on their back(I forget what the purpose of those was).

 

They also went on to predict that near the end of all their outragious predections... squids would become land animals and break off into two different species- The giant and dumb species of squid. And the smaller, more agile, more accute thinker, more family oriented, more tree oriented squid.

 

The small squid was predicted to fill the void of humans.

 

hahaa. Silly, isn't it?

[Tormod]

There is only 1% difference between the DNA of Chimpanzee and human. So there is little duobt that Chimpanzee will be next human.

 

There are absolutely plenty of reasons to doubt that chimps will be the "next human". Human beings are by definition *not* monkeys, as the original poster seems to think, but (as explained by others here) we came off the same branch of the evolutionary tree a long time ago. We both descend from *apes*.

 

But no matter how much one likes chimps or not, evolution does not favor any species based on it's similarity to human beings and as such there is absolutely no scientific reason to assume that they will take over our niche. That is more likely done by descendants of our own species, in perhaps 50,000 years or so.

 

We might go the way of the Neanderthals and become a dead end, while a new branch of homo sapiens takes over.

 

If, however, the entire human race should die out - well, then it is also likely that the same thing that wipes out humans, also wipes out chimps.

[haloman]

I wasn't really referring to just chimpanzees themselves more of all types of apes that are more closely related to us. What would happen if humans killed everyone in a war then there would be much more rain forests for them to live in and they would have till the end of life on earth or the next ice age ect., for millions or even billions of years for them to evolve and become the next human.

[hallenrm]

If genetic mutations is the only reason for evolution from monkey to man, isn't it possible that some mutations may lead to a person who is nearer to monkeys then human. Here is an interesting press clipping from India

 

http://www.financialexpress.com/latest_full_story.php?content_id=131199

[somebody]

since humans evolved from chimps, and since humans are more intellegent than chimps, may be there is a chance when new "species of human" arises, they could be smarter than we are. All in all, all the problems of the universe and EARTh will be resolved sooner or later.

 

 

 

also, if all humans die in war then chimps (monkeys) will be able to reproduce more and therefore there are more chances for random mutation. Who knows those mutations may turn out to be the "new" human species.

[Mohit Pandey]

But no matter how much one likes chimps or not, evolution does not favor any species based on it's similarity to human beings and as such there is absolutely no scientific reason to assume that they will take over our niche.

 

Humans are the intelligent species. They left the nature and its forest long ago(whatever may be the reason). Therefore, the species which are similar to humans have more chance to be next human or other intelligent species.

The point is that intelligent species can evolve to be next human or other intelligent species faster than any other non-intelligent species.:hihi:

[TheBigDog]

Evolution happens out of necessity. Chimps will be chimps until the end of time unless their reproductive habits are influenced by conditions favorable to a different traits.

 

Bill

[Boerseun]

Evolution happens out of necessity. Chimps will be chimps until the end of time unless their reproductive habits are influenced by conditions favorable to a different traits.

 

Bill

I think we may be seeing it already. Chimps can be said to be in a 'transitional' state between walking on all fours and bipedal locomotion. Currently, it's not really advantageous to any individual chimp to be exclusively bipedal, because there's enough food. But the moment they go through a population bottleneck and the 100% availability of the hands will be an edge where fighting over supplies and gathering and carrying food is concerned, we might see a sudden burst (relatively speaking, of course) of evolution towards chimps becoming fully bipedal.

[P3X491]

There is only 1% difference between the DNA of Chimpanzee and human. So there is little duobt that Chimpanzee will be next human. But it will take millions of years.:hihi:

 

this may not be so. because one of darwins theory of evolution states that we adapt and change to suit the enviroment we live in, because chimpanzees live in a different enviroment to us they would evolve differently meaning that in a million years the DNA difference might become 10%.

[Jet2]

By the time the today chimps become future human, I think we would become aliens. :hihi:

[P3X491]

today chimps may never evolve into humans.

[Boerseun]

Ironically, just the opposite might be true.

 

Look at MTV, reality shows, and popular media in general. I think humans are well on their way to becoming the next chimps.