Fishing again

"Evolve, dammit!"

'Nuff said? Dale McGowan's thoughts on bumper fish. I used to have one:

but it kept getting swiped. Once someone left a note on my car wondering indignantly, Mr. Smart Guy, why there are still monkeys?! If my correspondent had stuck around I'd have referred him to Scientific American's response:

This reflects several levels of ignorance about evolution. The first mistake is that evolution does not teach that humans descended from monkeys; it states that both have a common ancestor.

The deeper error is that this objection is tantamount to asking, "If children descended from adults, why are there still adults?" New species evolve by splintering off from established ones, when populations of organisms become isolated from the main branch of their family and acquire sufficient differences to remain forever distinct. The parent species may survive indefinitely thereafter, or it may become extinct.

I'm sure that's the answer he was fishing for.