Question: As some scientists believe that humans have evolved from gorillas; one would only wonder whether present gorillas would eventually evolve into humans. What do you say?

Reka Nagy answered on 17 Nov 2016:

Scientists who say that humans evolved from gorillas are wrong – gorillas and humans have both evolved from a species that was their most recent common ancestor – so gorillas are more like our distant cousins rather than our direct ancestors. As for whether it’s possible that gorillas would evolve into humans – I don’t think so. The point of evolution is that it tries to keep each species alive by making them most fit for the environment they live in. Gorillas can quite happily survive in their environment, and even if they couldn’t, it’s unlikely that they would acquire the exact mutations that would turn them into humans. Even if they did, this would probably take longer than either of our species is likely to survive!