"Man and ape are very similar", this sentence can now be said to be an objective statement, but it is not easy to reach this conclusion, after the joint efforts of biology, genetics, anthropology, primate and other disciplines.
When Darwin explicitly proposed "apes with ancestors" in The Origin of Species in 1859, people deeply influenced by religious theology simply could not accept this view. In 1860, the British naturalist Huxley also engaged in the famous "Oxford Great Controversy" with the adherents of creationism on the issue of "apes with ancestors", Huxley said that he would not be ashamed to admit that his ancestors were apes, although Huxley won a great victory in the controversy, but people accepted the "apes with ancestors" view, it did go through an extremely long process.
In the 1950s, primateology developed, researchers observed the constitution and behavior of more and more primates other than humans, and in the late 1960s, DNA sequencing was also used to explore the origin of primates, and the close relationship between humans and apes was affirmed and recognized.
Whether it is apes or humans, millions of years ago, their evolutionary core area is located in East Africa, the core area is the East African Rift Valley area, although the specific type of ape is the ancestor of human beings is still undecided, but from the perspective of time, about 5 million to 7 million years ago, humans separated from some kind of ape.
To figure out what an ape is, we can start with the definition of an ape: "An ape is a tall primate without a tail." In fact, whether there is a tail or not is the basic difference between an ape and a monkey, so although we often say "ape", in fact, apes and monkeys are two different animals.
Because of their close resemblance to humans, apes are also known as "great apes", and in Latin apes are "hominoidea", which means "the same as humans".
To be precise, great apes taxonomically include gibbons, orangutans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and humans, of which gibbons and orangutans live in Asia, chimpanzees and gorillas live in Africa, and only humans are currently left with homo sapiens, which is distributed around the world.
Of course, there are still people who are firmly opposed to "apes with ancestors", and they do not believe that humans evolved from some kind of ancient ape. But it is undeniable that apes are the closest animals to humans in terms of physical characteristics and lifestyle. Humans and apes are very close in brain structure, visceral location, etc., and even the diseases and blood types they suffer from are similar to humans. Neither has a tail, and the cecum and appendix have also degenerated. Even in DNA terms, humans and apes are 98% identical.
Of course, differences in the control and expression of genetic traits form differences in body and behavior between the two species. The first is the difference in limbs. Humans have short legs and long legs, while apes have long legs and short legs, which is mainly affected by the environment, because apes are mostly arboreal and rely on their arms to travel through the forest, so the body and upper limbs of apes need to be extra developed. When they move on the ground, they use a semi-upright manner, using the joints of their fingers to contact the ground to maintain the balance of the body.
The second point is also influenced by the environment, that is, the difference in hair. Third, and the most essential difference between the two, the gap between language, mind and imagination.