>>324Yes, a few thousand millennia must have passed between the point where apes started to evolve distinctly from other primates. No, modern monkeys are not the same species as monkeys from a million years ago. "Monkeys" aren't even a singular species anyway, there are, and have been many different species of monkeys, so the question of "why are there still monkeys" is kind of naive at best or disingenuous at worst.
Also, I think you are assuming that traits can't remain consistent. Species evolve to fit various niches, thriving and/or stabilizing when they evolve a successful survival strategy, and so long as a certain niches remain relatively stable, and that survival strategy remains roughly maximal for that niche in that environment, then rate of change in the gene pool of that species will remain relatively low when most potential variations would prove detrimental to the survival of that species, in that environment, in that niche they fill. Just look at alligators for example. The species has apparently existed in the fossil record relatively unchanged since dinosaurs where still around.
