john hawks weblog  paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution
Humans aren't monkeys. We aren't apes, either.  Sun, 2012-03-18
20:51 -- John Hawks  I don't know why so many people who accept
and promote evolution have such a dim view of phylogenetic
systematics.  How else to explain why I so often hear the
canard, "Humans are apes"?  My children can tell what an ape is.
I work very hard to tell them why apes are different than
monkeys. When they see a chimpanzee in a zoo, and other parents
are telling their kids, "Look at the monkey!", my children say,
"That's not a monkey, it's an ape!"  Phylogeny is the
relationship among different species. Phylogenetic systematics
argues (among other things) that our taxonomy should reflect
phylogeny. The result in anthropology is that we have rejected
some taxonomic ideas. In the past, many anthropologists
categorized chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans together as
"pongids". Today, we recognize that these are not a natural
group. Phylogenetically, humans are part of the