We went down the trees, that’s for sure – East Side Story

Meet our great simian cousins: the gorilla, the orangutan and finally the chimpanzee with the bonobo which is our closest relative. These are the four anthropoid apes still living in our motherland, Africa. Have you ever wondered what do we actually have in common with our wonderful family of Great Apes (who are more and more frequently said to be hominids)? Since we used to live together and looked pretty alike, why do we now differ so much one from another?

That’s more or less (rather less) how the whole thing happened:
The branch of anthropoid apes is said to have emerged about 13-14 million years ago. After series of climatic changes, which made nature favour other apes and primates who were better adapted to digest the unripe fruit, our disqualified ancestors ‘decided’ to go down the trees and try out some other lifestyle. But then, somehow, we got - literally – separated from our dear cousins. What divided us was the geological force that ripped off the East Africa from the rest of the continent and created the East Africa’s Great Rift Valley. So, the ancestors of our cousins were left on the west side among the tropical humid forests and ours continued life on the east side, on the savannas where our human minds truly started to evolve into what they are today.

Actually, the scientific researches show that our brilliant minds (we tend to be so proud of) remain the savanna ones more than we suppose.
Today's charming creature in the photo: little orangutan. Somehow familiar...