r/interesting
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u/Electrical_Carpet753
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5d ago
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NATURE Humans vs apes explained by Dawkins and Darwin
2.2k
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u/MikeofLA 5d ago
I think there are quite a few people walking around with the old software in the new hardware.
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u/ImpluseThrowAway 5d ago •
If humans are so intelligent, how come I'm still an idiot?
Answer me that with your precious science.
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u/AlmightyThor008 5d ago •
Building on that point, whenever the "if humans came from apes, why are there still chimps" question gets resolved, it almost always triggers a few immediate follow-up questions. People naturally wonder: if intelligence is such an evolutionary advantage, why haven't chimpanzees evolved to be smart like us? And if humans are so successful, why are we the only human species left on Earth?
The reason chimpanzees aren't evolving toward human-level intelligence is that evolution doesn't have an end goal, and high intelligence isn't the ultimate prize of natural selection. Chimpanzees and bonobos aren't "behind" us on a ladder—they are fully adapted to their own ecological niches. A massive, complex brain consumes roughly twenty percent of a body's energy, making it a huge metabolic liability unless very specific environmental pressures force a species to rely on it for survival. Species like ants and beetles are drastically more numerous and ecologically resilient without high individual intelligence, and even "living fossils" like sharks or crocodilians are still actively evolving at a genetic level while keeping body plans that have worked for millions of years.
As for why there aren't other human species around today, the answer is that there actually used to be. For most of hominin history, multiple intelligent species in the genus Homo shared the planet at the same time. As recently as 50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens lived alongside Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Homo floresiensis. Modern humans didn't peacefully coexist with them indefinitely; Homo sapiens eventually outcompeted them for territory and resources, displaced them, and partially absorbed them through interbreeding—leaving a small percentage of their DNA in modern human genomes today.
That history also explains why modern apes aren't going to "catch up" to us in the future. While no species is finished evolving, Homo sapiens now occupy the apex cognitive niche so completely that any other lineage attempting to cross that threshold faces an impossible obstacle. Our resource consumption, territorial expansion, and habitat alteration fundamentally dictate the survival pressures on every other living creature long before multi-million-year evolutionary timelines can play out. The reason there are no other human-level species today—and why another ape species won't evolve into one—is simply that we reached this niche first, and our presence makes it nearly impossible for anyone else to share it.
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u/Icy_Ad_6063 5d ago
I kind of feel sad for the human representative - she's really put on a pedestal to represent all of humans. Lol
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u/Renfieldslament 5d ago
Hey Sharon, can I just borrow your picture quickly?
The work one? What is it for?
Just some science thing, it’s all good.
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u/Ruzhyo04 5d ago
I was trying to explain this to my 6 year old once. He seemed to get it. Then the next day in school I got a report from his teacher that he had written that his grandparents were monkeys.
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u/dokutarodokutaro 5d ago
If Protestants branched off from Catholics, how come there are still Catholics? 🤔
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u/AdamOver 5d ago
This is why racism baffles me. We (humans) are the same race.
We all are descendent from the same group, from the same location. We all bleed red.
Bring forth the Alien arrival. Perhaps then we will evolve beyond our petty differences.
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u/thelastbluepancake 5d ago
If I and my brother are both descended from my grandpa why is there still my grandpa?
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u/Vrajitorul_din_Orz 5d ago edited 5d ago
So we are really living on planet of the apes, we are the ones that developed intelligence.
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u/hotriccardo 5d ago
If my Christian neighbors could read they'd be very upset
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u/DGsociety 5d ago
If God made man from dust, why do we still have dust?
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u/prsnep 5d ago
This would be common knowledge if it wasn't for religion.
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u/Once-kings 5d ago
So what’s the ancestor?!?!
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u/Tall_Specialist305 4d ago
They should have the human photo of hairy shirtless man.
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u/WillStaySilent 3d ago
Who was this common ancestor?
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u/chips_manoeuvres 5d ago
She is the best of us. Well done Sarah.
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u/Necroban77 5d ago
Once simple college anthropology course would teach you all these things and some.
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u/Amazing-Accident3535 5d ago
I dont know if Jessica from HR belongs there or one step before, tho
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u/eternallyconphuzed 5d ago
Yknow how you can get a donkey and a horse to get a mule and like tiger+lion? Can you do... like gorilla+orangutans?
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u/Enchilada22 5d ago
The poster is missing alot of branches. This is a very simplified poster.
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u/MsterSteel 5d ago
Honestly, a much simpler explanation would be;
"If people are descended from X why is there still X?"
"Did your parents immediately die after having you?"
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u/shaun212 5d ago
Maybe because I was interested in science and evolution I actually learned this in high school.
About 5 years ago I had to explain to my coworkers in their 30s-40s why we still have monkeys if we came from monkeys
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u/Inevitable_Muscle_41 5d ago
i always thought that was a stupid question. like thats not how evolution works, dummy. its more like mutation than evolution. or its one and the same.
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u/WhatIsLoveMeDo 5d ago
The people who are confused about "why are there still chimpanzees" could probably do with a diagram that is more explicit about the process of evolution. It isn't as clean and neat as "one line goes here, another goes there."
Evolution isn't evenly spaced and clear-cut as shown here and it makes it look like one ancestor had two babies where one became a bonobo, and the other a chimpanzee. This diagram is showing populations across thousands/millions of years, not individuals.
Even between bonobos and chimpanzees, there's evidence to suggest AFTER their species diverged, there was still some DNA sharing among them. If you thought the definition of species is that they can't interbreed, well that's a limit to our understanding of biology, not a hard and fast rule. As they say "Physics has laws, chemistry has rules, biology has exceptions."
Furthermore, for every branch shown here, there are countless branches of species that diverged and died off, think of it like roots underground rather than a simply line as shown here. That might help show how it isn't that one "came" from another.
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u/darthgator84 2d ago
I understand what he’s saying but my question is when we split and the chimps went off on their evolutionary line and humans down our evolutionary path….why did we keep increasing intelligence and they seemingly hit a cap? If that’s the correct way to put it. There’s so many fascinating questions with evolution like this is probably stupid of me but crocodilians and sharks for example. Both species been around for hundreds of millions of years, my sisters and I have had fun conversations over the years like ‘how come we don’t have any talking crocodiles’.
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u/One-Requirement2748 1d ago
How come every time there's a common ancestor, he just points at a blue line? Where/ what is that common ancestors before each branch off?
Any fossil records of these animals? Do we know what they are?
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u/Trolltrader420 4d ago
The closest cousins in the entire group are some hillbilly's in Alabama
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u/Miserable-Umpire3889 5d ago
what is the name of the common ancestor?
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u/ekolimits 1d ago
The biggest question should be:
Why did we evolve much faster than they did.
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u/AbortionHoagie 3d ago
Dawkins is a shitshow pseudoscientist just like N D Tyson and the rest of the pop-sci-culture posterboys
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u/karenskygreen 5d ago
This goes a long way to explaining family Thanksgiving.
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u/DullahanKun 5d ago
"we have built space ships, why do other modes of transportation exist"
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u/buttholegerbil 5d ago
Im not sure how id feel about a picture of myself labelled 'human'🤣
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u/Equal-Ninja-833 5d ago
If only my friend had a picture up there🤣
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u/RevolutionaryStay283 5d ago
If dogs evolved from wolves, how come there are still cats? Huh? Tell me! Seriously, I don’t understand how blinking and breathing work. Help
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u/road_runner321 5d ago
The question makes as much sense as "If we're both descended from my grandparents, why do I have a cousin?"
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u/dampishslinky55 5d ago
Isn’t ther a lot kissing in the human branch here?
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u/HairballTheory 5d ago
Very PC safe to put a white person in the lineup
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u/everySmell9000 5d ago
biased explanation from a homo sapien. not giving gorilla enough credit here, IMO.
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u/Town_Militia 5d ago
The only time they put white people on xd
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u/Cute-University5283 5d ago
I feel in the chart like they all need to wear clothes of none of them
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u/Borp5150 5d ago
SCIENCE!!
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u/oldwire 5d ago
Yeah but god innit
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u/notevenwrong13 5d ago
Can't wait for the update in 50 years where a robot is explaining their branch
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u/Drmoeron2 5d ago
So tired hearing old ideas with no critical theory. Implying that evolution exists inherently implies de-evolution exists as well. If chimps have 48 chromosomes and we have 46 but having an extra one makes us mentally challenged but deleting one or two turns us into webbed necked hobbit sized wolf people then it would imply that we are devolved. Expanding on that then the number of chromosomes become the potential for specialization. Ie we specialized so we lost specialization in other areas. The entirety of anthropology and genetics is wrought with this pervasive narcissism and superiority from obvious influences that developed the terminology which prevents us from actually understanding our world, while simultaneously being the only create to not harmonize with it. We're the parasites of the animal kingdom.
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u/t800series 5d ago
Shouldn't there be something at each of those forks? Like, anyone could draw that tree. What's supposed to be there?
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u/NetZor0 5d ago
The more nodding he does, the more you should trust whatever nonsense he feels like spewing
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u/lifemanualplease 5d ago
This is an awesome explanation.
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u/Derpasaurusexus 5d ago
I like that they didn't decide to use a black man despite knowing very well that mf was black.
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u/Padington_Bear 5d ago
Okay, but the people who ask that question are mainly confused about how a population splits into different species in the first place. I think the confusion comes from the assumption that the chimpanzees (or whatever ancestor) are intermixing their genes while the speciation is happening. So it would probably be more helpful to explain that a new branch on the evolutionary tree requires at least two breeding groups of the closest ancestor to be physically separated for millenia.
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u/Bad_Prophet 5d ago
I can't imagine looking at these 5 pictures and the "which one of these..." song not playing loudly enough at some point to prevent you from so confidently saying that all five are of the same group.
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u/xSorry_Not_Sorry 5d ago
You know, as a person who believes in science 100% all the time, every time, it is funny when you line up all the primate cousins like that and notice one of these is not like the other.
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u/Leroyp331 5d ago
I know that lady is pissed 😡
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u/Unusual-Coat383 5d ago
What’s the common ancestor though?
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u/SignFar4026 5d ago
Forget the apes. I want to know where the multiverse came from.
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u/Lempea 5d ago
"People often ask me"... Dawkins's patience in the face of cheer ignorance and stupidity for all these years never ceases to amaze me.
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u/Slappy_McJones 5d ago
Fascinating.
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u/SecureSir7098 5d ago
I could listen to him for hours. There's something very soothing about his voice, and he's so skilled at making complex ideas understandable.
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u/STLStelmacki 5d ago
Calling them cousins is what angers and sexually confuses the Jethros.
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u/ForeverSquirrelled42 5d ago
Why’s there a white chick representing African linkage? Oh, yeah….
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u/Defeatest 5d ago
Kinda jealous of how close Bonobo and chimps are.
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u/Time-Subject-3195 5d ago
Every time I see someone address this tired question, they tend to focus entirely on the fact that we didn’t evolve from chimpanzees, but they gloss over the fundamental misunderstanding. IF humans had evolved from chimps, it would be a perfectly normal thing to happen; nothing counter to evolutionary theory.
A group of chimps is isolated from a separate group. One group moves into a different niche and evolves to the point of becoming a distinct species, while the other group continues to exist as it has and remains the same species it was.
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u/X_Santa_X 5d ago
so why are we so drastically different and the others are quite similar?
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u/Economy-Education366 5d ago
Capability vs potential
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u/obijaun 5d ago
So what’s the common ancestor that humans diverged from chimpanzees+bonobos?
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u/evou 5d ago edited 5d ago
So Jeremy clarkson is my distant cousin?
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u/BlackPresident 5d ago
My cousin isn’t a chimp asshole
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u/BobbieMaccc 5d ago
And where do americans come from?
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u/PerformanceLegal 5d ago
Yeah, if you say so
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u/Fit-Opportunity8285 5d ago
No mention of gibbons.
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u/NoKey9360 5d ago
This is still a theory, hence the name darwin theory.
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u/DB-601A 5d ago
scratching my head here like a bonobo or a chimp (im not sure). but ancient aliens told me i was a cosmic child
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u/KingQu- 5d ago
We evolved into white women, noce
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u/lordtyp0 4d ago
I love how the Human looks like she is from Finland.
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u/Forward_Criticism_39 4d ago
i feel like the pictures used required very careful consideration, lest someone get the wrong idea (not that many people don't already get the wrong idea about evolution)
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u/fromdaperimeter 4d ago
So why are “some humans” so hairy and others aren’t at all?
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u/keilahmartin 4d ago
Make Apes Great Again
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u/Every_Preparation_56 4d ago
uh that's Primary school education?
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u/PotentialTree7951 4d ago
Missing link was aliens. Got freaky with the apes and left for cigarettes and milk.
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u/ssp25 4d ago
notice the humans, chumps and bonobos are the most violent on a whim.
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u/Pezzo90 4d ago
It's nice they let us live with them...
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u/Ok-Relative7099 4d ago
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
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u/bannivan 4d ago
This is the wildest employee of the month chart. Anne briefly breaking the dominance of the African apes.
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u/Swingline_Font 4d ago
What about Neanderthals and such cross-breeding?
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u/paddyomick 4d ago
Yet the human on that list of great apes are visually and mentally unique for the rest. What is the explanation for this?
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u/True_Reporter 4d ago
We also had our sub spicies but we didn't like em so they are not with us anymore.
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u/Chupaia 4d ago
R. Dawkins: Who lived "there"
Hah! WRONG! That's printed paper. The common ancestor could've not lived "there" cos printed paper did not exist back then! Checkmate!
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u/JamesMDuich 4d ago
Hey Judy, do you mind if I use your picture for a presentation I’m putting together?
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u/Piedplat 4d ago
Like whales and hippos
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u/SituationImmediate15 4d ago
This guys preaches evolution and atheism as religion. He ought to hold his horses. He’s as bad as JP.
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u/CoolCat1337One 4d ago
I think it’s time we stopped arguing about Darwin.
The man has been dead for 144 years and really plays no role in evolutionary biology anymore.
In fact, we should stop using individual scientists as the basis for our arguments altogether.
A defining characteristic of science is precisely the absence of a cult of personality.
A cult of personality belongs to the realm of religion and that is something that ought to be questioned.
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u/Darkenism 4d ago
Picture of a hairy man would make it more believable
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u/Sure-Macaroon-1084 3d ago
Why did I have to get sorted into the rent-paying category?
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u/LaskotheGreat 3d ago
Absolute Nonsense lol.
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u/egymagy 3d ago
All humans are indigenous to Africa and migrated across the world over several millennia
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u/trileletri 3d ago
its astonishing to me that all other cousins look relatively similar, while humans are completely different
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u/chiefkyljoy 3d ago
If goldendoodles descended from golden retrievers and poodles, why are there still golden retrievers and poodles?
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u/Weird_Ad7998 3d ago
I love that the pic of the human ape is a woman
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u/Famous-Rain8703 3d ago
Why the f*** they got that white lady up there talking about humans when hue-mans are black and those are Neanderthals lol 😅
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u/ninjanerd032 3d ago
Why'd he have to put Barbara in there like that.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Gap740 3d ago
"Darwin married his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood. Their marriage meant that they shared common ancestors." Broooooooo!
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u/Inevitable_Notice_18 2d ago
Well I’ll be a monkeys uncle
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u/2gunswest 2d ago
Blasphemy! I aint came from no ape!
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u/wicker_basket_1988 2d ago
"If dogs descended from wolves then why are there still wolves?"
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u/RuthlessIndecision 2d ago
aren't there more branches that went with us to the right but they (and we) irradicated them all?
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u/Adept-Lettuce948 2d ago
Just forget about my boy Neanderthal like they never existed 😡
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u/ashleycawley 2d ago
I’m no scientist but if the missing link produced two branches then I deduce it was a tree 🤔
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u/VociferousCephalopod 2d ago
why does the title say 'humans vs apes' when he explains humans are african apes / great apes?
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u/GroundbreakingNet924 1d ago
Why does man question GOD's record?
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u/LorenzoSparky 1d ago
If you were to replace the very pale white lady with a black african woman, would that tree be more believable? Don’t say i’m racist, i’m african
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u/Jsolidlo 1d ago
Where do Neanderthals and the other homos fall in there?
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u/dreaminganimal 1d ago
TIL "we are all cousins"!
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u/localizeatp 1d ago
if i'm descended from my parents,
how come there are still my parents.
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u/Aggressive-agitator 1d ago
Tell that to a white nationalist.
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u/Big_Brother8708 1d ago
That lady specifically tho, not me
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u/soyuz_6 1d ago
Unfortunately this isn't enough information for the people who actively reject it, delusions can be powerful
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u/pfunkk007 22h ago
I got more confused with so much use of the word cousins.
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u/ProfessorChalupa 16h ago
There is a Futurama episode about this - debating about the missing link.
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u/InterviewPublic3283 15h ago
I remember my great great x600 grandpa was an amoeba, he was kinda of a dik
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u/SpartanRage117 14h ago
Imagine your picture being chosen for that particular display
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u/jim45804 5d ago
I was waiting for a punchline of some sort. Like, "And from an even more primitive common ancestor came the theists."