Contrary to your question and to some (erroneous) popular opinion, man did not evolve from apes. However, we do share with gorillas and chimpanzees, a common ancestor. That ancestor evolved in Africa somewhere around five to eight million years ago. At some point in that time period, the lineage, or line of evolutionary development, split. One of the branches eventually led to the African ape (gorillas and chimpanzees), and the other branch (called the hominids), eventually led to you and me.
Think about it; if we evolved directly from the African ape, there wouldn't be any more African apes. Evolution is a long, long process of change and natural selection wherein one species evolves into another species. The dinosaurs, many scientists now believe, evolved tens of millions of years ago from the relatively large and predominantly land-based creatures they were to become the birds of today. The dinosaurs are no more, but there are plenty of birds from whom they have evolve.
In short: we did not evolve from apes, but we did have a common ancestor.
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