Humans being apes vs. animals

Post Reply New Topic

Some people have said that saying "humans are not apes" is like saying "humans are not animals". I don't think this is an accurate comparison. Humans have been considered animals since the beginning of taxomy. Considering humans apes is only a relatively recent thing.

We are members of the animal kingdom. There is no disputing that we are vertebrates, mammals, and primates.

Birds are vertebrates, too--but we are not birds. Monkeys are primates, too---but we are not monkeys.

We are in the same taxonomic "family" as apes.

Humans rarely consider themselves to be "apes," though. And apes are never considered "human."

This is likely because Europeans didn't know about the existence of great apes for a long time.

Recentness has nothing to do with it. Accuracy is the issue.

The term "ape" includes the African apes: two kinds of gorillas, chimps, and bonobos,-- and it includes the Asian apes: orangutans, and two species of gibbons.

If you draw a line around that group of seven species, ndl call that group "apes" then you have to include humans within the same boundary line as also being a kind of "ape" since some of the ape species are more closely related to humans than they are to other of the "ape" species.

Actually, we're chimps. Or bonobos. There's about a 99% overlap of our genetic codes:

We're Chimps