One of the most impressive articles is Why Are Chimps Still Chimps" (Johnson et al. 2012). It answers the most common questions from students about human evolution and the evolution of our closest cousin, the chimpanzee.
You will learn about the difference between anagenesis and cladogenesis and why our common ancestor might have looked more like a modern chimpanzee than a modern human.
Johnson et al. are addressing teachers and they know it's important to directly refute students' misconceptions in class. They do a good job of pointing out those misconceptions.
Here's the conclusion of their paper.
If humans evolved from chimps, why are there still chimps? The two major misconceptions this question reflects are that evolution is (1) always linear and (2) innately progressive. The common depiction of evolution as a linear progression throughout which ape-like creatures become more like modern humans is a gross simplification (see Gould, 1989, for further discussion of the iconography). Along these lines, we encourage educators to find images of human and ape family trees in which the human–chimp common ancestor is depicted as an illustration, rather than those that use photographs of chimps to represent this common ancestor – reinforcing the very misconception we are trying to avoid. As we discussed, much of evolution results in a pattern known as cladogenesis; this involves processes that have given rise to the tree-like pattern of the diversity of life. Moreover, evolution does not necessarily equate to progress, as change is not always progressive (Ruse, 1996). It is incorrect to speak of living organisms as more (or less) evolved than other living organisms. Chimps are just as evolved as humans. The lineages leading to chimps and humans split from one another some 6 million years ago; since then, each has taken its own path.This is an example of the misconception that we need to refute ...
Johnson, N.A., Smith, J.J., Pobiner, B. and Schrein, C. (2012) Why Are Chimps Still Chimps? The American Biology Teacher 74:74-80. [DOI: 10.1525/abt.2012.74.2.3]
