• Question: I understand there is proof that species have evolved within themselves, but is there any proof that one species has evolved into another species.

    Asked by to Amelia, Izzy, Sarah on 19 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Isabel Webb

      Isabel Webb answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      A species could never evolved into another existing species – they wouldn’t be able to reproduce together, which is essential.

      We do have lots of evidence of features evolving completely separately with the same function – called convergent evolution. The classic example is wings – bird wings and bat wings are physically very different and obviously evolved completely separately – but being able to fly is common to both. Another example that you might not expect is flowers – and this is why some flowers look so different.

    • Photo: Amelia Frizell-Armitage

      Amelia Frizell-Armitage answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      Believe it or not all species alive today used to be another species. This is how evolution works – one species evolves into another, better species. There are many plant examples and lots of evidence, but lets think about humans as it is the easiest to imagine.

      Humans are part of the primate family, and evolved from monkeys. We actually share around 95-99% of our DNA with gorillas and chimpanzees which shows how closely related we are. The first species of human evolved from chimpanzees around 4-8 million years ago.

      It would have happened by lots of mutations (accidental changes) happening in the chimpanzee DNA. Many of these would have been bad and the individual with the changes would have died. However some of these DNA mutations would have caused beneficial changes such as bigger brain size or the ability to walk up-right, which would help the chimpanzee survive. Lots and lots of beneficial changes all building up in one population of chimpanzees would have lead to the evolution of the first human being! Since then humans kept on evolving. There have been many species of human including Homo heidelbergenisi, which were the first species to start developing a more complex brain, and the neanderthals which were well adapted to the ice age. Our species, Homo sapiens, is now the only species left as we were best adapted to the earth.

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