@ubersiren You’re on the right track but missing a few key points. Darwin never said that we are the species that we evolved from (at least not like that). BASICALLY what Darwin found while sailing the pacific isles (all thousands of them) was that on one island there would be a species that was extremely similar to another species on a different island nearby. After seeing this multiple times he deduced that at some point those islands were connected, or a member of one of those species (or a common ancestor) found it’s way to the other island….. From that point on, one of those species changed for some reason (either to adapt to it’s new environment, or just simple genetic disorder that wasn’t fatal), and hence a new species began on the other island.
The point I’m getting at here, is that the species we evolved from, does not HAVE to be extinct (and in many cases creatures that other creatures evolved from still exist today).
The “missing link” is yes, the common ancestor that both humans and apes evolved from. TECHNICALLY, this very well could be an ape (though I’m pretty sure most science is leaning towards it simply being a mammal that lived in trees).
You are correct though that Darwin himself never outright said we evolved from apes. But his work heavily implied that it is a possibility.