I Don't Understand Family Trees
Direct Descent
Families and Common Descent
You are descended from your ancestors - parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents etc.
So are your cousins.
Are you surprised that your cousins, second cousins, third cousins etc are still around?
That is something that was obvious well before Darwin - that apes, monkeys and humans all were descended from a common ancestor.
Why Are There Still Jews? or Catholics?
Darwin's Explanation
Apes, monkeys and humans all had the same skeleton, they had the same organs, they had the same systems for digesting food, they had the same respiratory system, they gave birth in the same way.
Everything pointed to them being part of one family.
But no-one could explain how they could have evolved.
Charles Darwin's suggestion that it was a result of selection - the animals that could find a mate and reproduce were the ones who's genes made it into the next generation. And the better suited to your environment, the more offspring you would have.
