Carico said:
I'm simply trying to find out how apes evolved into human beings. Animals are produced by the fertilized egg of their parents. So how did apes produce human beings? "over time" explains nothing. It does not explain how 2 apes can produce a "homonid". So how did humans evolve from apes? Again, apes are breeding apes today and humans are breeding humans. So how did the fertilized egg of 2 apes produce a species so different from an ape that it was given a new name? Where did the "homonid" come from? Is there anyone here who has an answer to that question?
Although Im sure that, with over 5000 posts under your belt you have been told this before, I will sincerely try to answer you question anyway.
I think the thing preventing you from understanding the process is the understanding that this took time and transitional forms to get from ape to humans. As genetic mutations occurred in separated populations of apes, they started to diverge. Once there was an initial speciation then all it took was time and more speciation to get to human form.
The Hominid Transitional Timeline
At the time Charles Darwin wrote
On The Origin of Species (1859), we had
no fossils of Human ancestors. Through tremendous effort in searching for fossils the next chart can show about 13-14 "links" between modern Humans and our Gorilla cousins, going back about 5 of the 10 million years to our split in lineage. For each of the species in this chart there are from 5 to 500 fossil or sub-fossil specimens. We have the most specimens for Neanderthals. As new fossil sites are discovered it may be expected that our confidence in this chart will grow (or it will be modified) and that even more intermediate links will appear on it.
Indeed, since I wrote that paragraph for my
Introduction to Evolution page, a range of new fossils have been found, including:
Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba, 5.2-5.8 mybp in Ethiopia,
Kenyanthropus platyops, 3.5 mybp in Kenya,
Orrorin tugenensis, 6 mybp, also in Kenya, and
Sahelanthropus tchadensis, 6.5 mybp in Chad. The graphic timeline shown here is modified from one used by the BBC in several recent articles. My larger graphic just below, based upon 1995 data, will have to be modified to include the new fossils after the debate within paleoanthropology reaches some degree of consensus as to the validity of the taxa and their importance.
In the graphic above only fossil genera are shown with a timeline. In the one below, closely following one produced in the journal
Nature, all of the commonly discussed species are shown but without attempting to illustrate hypothesized lines of descent. Notice that the species designated as Australopithecus habilis (below) is called Homo habilis in the cladogram that follows it, and three species of Paranthropus are referred to Australopithecus in the following cladogram. These are taxonomic decisions made by different authors.
Note that as many as 4 or 5 species of early hominids were living at the same time. Observe also that, in at least a half-dozen instances, a parental species continued to exist for a lengthy period of time after a daughter species evolved. The arrangement shown here is not accepted by all paleoanthropologists. For instance, there are some who would merge H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis, considering them as one species. Also, there are those who maintain the H. neanderthalensis is a subspecies of H. sapiens while many others disagree.
Transitionals in the Human Fossil Series
The transitional series does not only include skulls, of course. While skulls provide evidence for gradual evolution of many features such as brain size, other bones involving the pelvis, knees and feet show us the transition to bipedality (upright stance) and increase in stature. Below the next picture and its links you will find the sections for all hominid species
A. Pan troglodytes, chimpanzee, modern
B.
Australopithecus africanus,
STS 5, 2.6 My
C.
Australopithecus africanus,
STS 71, 2.5 My
D. Homo habilis,
KNM-ER 1813, 1.9 My
E. H. habilis,
OH24 , 1.8 My
F.
H. ergaster (H. erectus),
KNM-ER 3733, 1.75 My
G. H. heidelbergensis, "
Rhodesia man," 300-125ky
H.
Homo neanderthalensis,
La Ferrassie 1, 70ky
I.
H. neanderthalensis,
La Chappelle-aux-Sts, 60ky
J.
H. neanderthalensis,
Le Moustier, 45ky
K.
Homo sapiens,
Cro-Magnon I, 30ky
L. Homo sapiens, modern
SOURCE: http://www.origins.tv/darwin/hominid.htm