The phrase "ape ancestors" refers to the ancient animals that are related to both apes and humans. These ancestors existed a long time ago and are believed to be the common relatives of modern-day apes and humans. Full definition
Mysterious episodes of genetic duplication in our great ape ancestors may have paved the way for human evolution (scientificamerican.com)
Who can trace his ancestry to his great grand the original ape ancestor. (religion.blogs.cnn.com)
Moeller is beginning to assemble a snapshot of the microbes in the guts of our ancient ape ancestor — in essence, a paleo gut that fit our paleo diet — and hopes to go even further back in time if, as seems likely, all mammals have evolved their unique microbiota from a common ancestral population in the distant past. (sciencedaily.com)