When did the split between humans and apes occur?

Answer 1

Apes do not turn into a men. Both the great apes and humans have a common ancestor who lived around 7 million years ago. One group of this ancestor population stayed in the trees and became modern apes, while another ventured further and further afield of the forest to become humans. The need to walk over savannah while our arms were full of various food stuffs or weapons lead to our current foot structure and bipedal locomotion. We lost our hair as a way to cool our bodies, and we gained darker skin to keep it from getting burnt by the sun. Our brains grew so we could better adapt to the ever changing environment of ancient Africa. Eating more cooked meat contributed to this growth. Our once ape-like flat nose grew to its current proportions to deal with colder temperatures. A good book that explains all of this is Before the Dawn(2006) by Nicholas Wade.

Having said that, several Chimps and Bonobos have been raised from birth in captivity in the hopes that they would eventually learn to speak or read. One female Chimp was taught to say "mamma," "pappa," and "cup" during the 1920s. However, since their esophagus is different than ours, she could only produce the sounds while breathing in. There are several apes that are very proficient at communicating through sign language or lexogram symbols. One Bonobo named Kanzi has shown himself to understand many English words. Look up the YouTube video "Kanzi Understands Spoken Language" to see an example of his proficiency.