I don’t agree with that at all. I think that what distinguishes man from other animals is our understanding of right from wrong. Whether God made man from a lump of clay or worked through eons in evolution: at some point a human became self-aware. With that knowledge came responsibilities.
Although I do not believe in a literal reading of Genesis, I think the story of the Fall is a perfect metaphor for when man set himself apart from the rest of the animals.
How can that be the case if it was from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that man was forbidden to eat from? — Or do you mean to say that before the fall that man had no distinction from the animals? (If so, why then were none of the animals found to be suitable to helpers of man?)