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Message: <blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 4524231" data-attributes="member: 463">Technically a species can't purely 'devolve', but in the case of a highly neotenous species (one that retains childlike characteristics into adulthood) like humans it can certainly evolve either increased or decreased neoteny, given the right environmental pressures, and this can happen in a relatively short period of time - probably in the tens of thousand of years range for a species with humans' generational length.  So far-future 'ape men' are not scientifically impossible.  It's likely that chimpanzees are less neotenous than the common chimp-human ancestor, since DNA evidence indicates a split around 4 million years ago, when fossil evidence indicates the presence of bipedal hominids.  Qv 'The First Chimpanzee', John Gribbin co-author.</blockquote>