9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
If we evolved from monkeys,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
why are there still monkeys?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Well, because we're not monkeys,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we're fish.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Now, knowing you're a fish[br]and not a monkey

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is actually really important[br]to understanding where we came from.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I teach one of the largest[br]evolutionary biology classes in the US,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and when my students finally understand

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
why I call them fish all the time,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
then I know I'm getting my job done.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But I always have to start my classes

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by dispelling some hard-wired myths,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because without really knowing it,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
many of us are taught evolution wrong.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
For instance, we're taught[br]to say "the theory of evolution."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
There are actually many theories,[br]and just like the process itself,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the ones that best fit the data[br]are the ones that survive to this day.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The one we know best[br]is Darwinian natural selection.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That's the process by which those[br]organisms that best fit an environment

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
survive and get to reproduce,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
while those that are less fit[br]slowly die off.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And that's it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Evolution is as simple as that,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and it's a fact.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Evolution is a fact

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
as much as the theory of gravity.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You can prove it just as easily.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You just need to look at your bellybutton

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that you share with[br]other placental mammals,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or your backbone

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that you share with other vertebrates,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or your DNA that you share[br]with all other life on earth.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Those traits didn't pop up in humans.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They were passed down[br]from different ancestors

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to all their descendants, not just us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But that's not really how[br]we learn biology early on, is it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We learn plants and bacteria[br]are primitive things,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and fish give rise to amphibians[br]followed by reptiles and mammals,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and then