What went wrong?

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the questions on the final exam I was a little dismayed to see that only 36% of the class got correct.

Here is the question:
49. Humans probably evolved directly from which of the following:
a. Chimpanzees
b. Gorillas
c. Tiktaalik
d. An ancient unicellular eukaryote
e. Darwinius masillae (an early primate fossil)

Across the board, even among the top students in the class, folks chose A. Why? What was confusing about this question? Humans did not evolve directly from chimpanzees, chimpanzees are an existing species. We share a common ancestor with chimpanzees. We did however, necessarily evolve from an ancient unicellular eukaryote (i.e. an ancient unicellular eukaryote is everybody's great ^ 500,000,000 grandparent, no chimpanzee that has ever existed is any sort of grandparent of any human being). As you leave this class, make sure that you understand the common fallacies that are made about evolution. Make sure you directly confront your misconceptions. We did not evolve from any species that exists today!! A less important concept this question was trying to address was that almost all fossils we find are probably not direct ancestors, but side branches close to direct ancestors.