While the argument that humans evolved from modern apes is erroneous, I think that the modern ape/human common ancestor might well also be considered an ape. Indeed, humans themselves might well be considered to be a variety of ape.
I like a comment I found at
a Yahoo group:
quote:
9. If we evolved from apes, why are there still apes today?
In response to this statement, some evolutionists point out that they don’t believe that we descended from apes, but that apes and humans share a common ancestor. However, the paleontologist G.G. Simpson had no time for this "pussyfooting", as he called it. He said, "In fact, that earlier ancestor would certainly be called an ape or monkey in popular speech by anyone who saw it. Since the terms ape and monkey are defined by popular usage, man’s ancestors were apes or monkeys (or successively both). It is pusillanimous [mean-spirited] if not dishonest for an informed investigator to say otherwise." However, the main point against this statement is that many evolutionists believe that a small group of creatures split off from the main group and became reproductively isolated from the main large population, and that most change happened in the small group which can lead to allopatric speciation (a geographically isolated population forming a new species). So there's nothing in evolutionary theory that requires the main group to become extinct.
Specific source
Moose
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