[BlatherNaut]

The team also calculate that humans split from chimpanzees - our closest primate relative - around seven to eight million years ago, earlier than the six-to-seven million years ago that is a common estimate.

So why are there chimps still swinging from vines, yet supposedly humans evolved (and evolved and evolved...)?

Humans share DNA with chimps (95%), but also share it with cats (90%) and fruit flies and even bananas (50%).

[trailhkr1]

So why are there chimps still swinging from vines, yet supposedly humans evolved (and evolved and evolved...)?

Can't remember the exact reason but thinking we had a common ancestor but we split somewhere early along the line.

Humans did not evolve from chimpanzes.

[Pharmboy]

Some species of sharks have been essentially unchanged for tens of millions of years. We did not split FROM a chimp line, but from a common ancestor of our line and chimps.

Chimpanzee fossils are extremely rare (perhaps because they were limited to more damp econiches than our ancestors were), and what their ancestors looked like 5 million or so years ago remains a mystery along with how much they changed (evolved).

[null and void]

So why are there chimps still swinging from vines, yet supposedly humans evolved (and evolved and evolved...)?

Since there are Modern Americans, why are there still Europeans?

[bgill]

So why are there chimps still swinging from vines

Because the chimps were smarter. They get to hang out in trees and let humans feed them and say, ahhh what a cute little monkey. The dumb humans have to go to work and pay taxes.

[gleeaikin]

The shared DNA is one of the most important aspects of evolution. It means that genes don’t have to be constantly totally invented. What changes is the timing and amount of time of the expression of different genes. For example apparently there is not a separate gene for the long neck of a giraffe. Rather there is a genetic mechanism in giraffes which turns the neck length gene on much longer than it is on for most developing embryos. This mechanism works for many different aspects of development in all creatures and plants. Thus, it does not take nearly as long to develop new species as it would if they had to be developed from scratch. Shawn Carroll wrote a fascinating book on this called “Endless Forms Most Beautiful.” A very interesting read.