A Visual Tour of the Primate Family Tree

Ed Young put this slideshow of primates on his website, Not Exactly Rocket Science.  When studying biology, we selfishly search for our place in the animal kingdom.  Yes, we are animals.  We are also (in descending order): chordates, VERTEBRATES, gnathostomes, tetropods, amniotes, MAMMALS, placentals, PRIMATES, GREAT APES, hominids, and humans.  Each category provides a wealth of information of characteristics and helps us to understand our similarities and differences with other organisms.

Image from Wikipedia- Japanese Macaques just chillin' in a hot tub.

At the primate level, we share a number a traits.  We all have opposable thumbs (Which I think is redundant.  If it is not opposable, isn't it just the first finger).  We all have finger nails instead of claws.  We all have collarbones which move our arms to the sides of our bodies.  We all have stereoscopic vision which helps to just distances.  These traits, and more, define us as primates.  As we peer deeper into the family, we find more traits in common with our closer cousins.  Likewise, our DNA shows more and more similarities.  The trend continues to our closest cousins, structurally and genetically, the chimpanzees.

These common traits and common DNA sequences would be exactly what you would expect if species started off as one population and later became distinct species.  Evolution helps us understand our difference and to appreciate our similarities.  This is the power of evolution as the unifying theory of biology.  Human evolution frightens many people away from science, but can also help to teach the amazing story of our family tree.