about gaps -- "Since the discovery of
Archaeopteryx, there have been many other crucial evolutionary gaps filled in the fossil record. Perhaps, the most important one, from our human perspective, was that between apes and our own species. ...transitional species leading from apes to humans over the last 6-7 million years.".
You still don’t seem to understand that the word “ape” isn’t a name for any species. It is a name of branch within taxon order Primate, but itself is the name of the taxon (super-) family Hominoidea, which means “Apes”. What it means is that the families, genera and species - that are extinct or extant - shared some common traits.
The modern humans - or the Homo sapiens is the species, and it is the only one that are extant in the genus Homo.
Homo means “human”, but the Homo sapiens weren’t the only species of human or Homo. The Neanderthal, Denisovans, the Homo erectus, and so on, are all humans too, as well as being the “Greater Apes” or Hominidae (family), Hominoidea, and so on. So not only modern humans are both humans and apes, we are also all mammals.
Just as Mammalia are not referred to as species, it is shared trait that all mammals have mammary glands. We are mammals, just as the dogs, horses, lions, seals, brown bears, whales, and so on, are mammals too.
Understanding the terms in their proper biological contexts are required to avoid making wrong assumptions, and avoiding being ignorant..