Question: How similar are monkeys and humans?

Matthew Lee answered on 16 Jun 2017:

very! Obviously it depends on what monkey you are talking about, some are much more similar than others. The great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas etc) are our closest living ancestor. This means that we became humans and they became chimpanzees etc from the same animal many many many many many years ago. Evolutionary biology is a really really big area of biology and covers loads of things not just how related we are to monkeys, but also how related humans are to each other, and also how humans developed, and how life evolved on earth. If you are interested in evolution you should read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, it gives a nice background to quite a lot of evolution, and even goes into things like philosophy and whether we are selfless people or selfish. Interesting read!