The arboreal origins of human bipedalism
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Citations
Neither chimpanzee nor human, Ardipithecus reveals the surprising ancestry of both
A new Miocene ape and locomotion in the ancestor of great apes and humans
Fossil hominin shoulders support an African ape-like last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees
Evolution and dispersal of the genus Homo: A landscape approach
References
Pierolapithecus and the functional morphology of Miocene ape hand phalanges: paleobiological and evolutionary implications.
Response to Comment on "Origin of Human Bipedalism As an Adaptation for Locomotion on Flexible Branches"
The postural feeding hypothesis: an ecological model for the evolution of bipedalism
The Extent to which the Posterior Segments of the Body have been Transmuted and Suppressed in the Evolution of Man and Allied Primates.
The evolution of compliance in the human lateral mid-foot
Related Papers (5)
Independent evolution of knuckle-walking in African apes shows that humans did not evolve from a knuckle-walking ancestor
Frequently Asked Questions (11)
Q2. What is the important line of evidence to emerge relatively recently from new fossil discoveries?
Published online by Cambridge University PressD ebat eone of the most important lines of evidence to emerge relatively recently from new fossil discoveries is that adaptations to suspension and arm-swinging must have evolved not once only but convergently, across several millions of years, in multiple fossil ape species (e.g. Almecija et al. 2009).
Q3. What is the origin of hominin bipedalism?
Theories regarding the origins of hominin bipedalism have spent some considerable time ‘on the ground’ as a result of the knuckle-walking hypothesis, which postulates that their earliest bipedal ancestor evolved from an ape that knuckle-walked on the ground in a way similar to modern chimpanzees or gorillas.
Q4. What is the evolution of the hominoid ancestor?
Locomotion and posture from the common hominoid ancestor to fully modern hominins, with special reference to the last common panin/hominin ancestor.
Q5. What is the effect of bipedalism on the orangutan?
The authors also found that in 75 per cent of their observations of orangutan bipedal locomotion along branches, they used their hands for stabilisation, as do chimpanzees (Hunt 1996; Stanford 2006).
Q6. What was the significance of the approach?
The significance of the approach was that it allowed comparative quantification of the ecological context of locomotion (how much time a particular species spent in knuckle-walking, brachiating, vertical climbing, etc.; in what kinds of setting— e.g. forest canopy, forest floor, open grassland—and an indication of the stresses different behaviours placed on the body).
Q7. How did the footprints from Laetoli show that hominin ancestors?
The famous footprints from Laetoli in Tanzania show that hominin ancestors were walking upright by at least 3.65 million years ago.
Q8. What is the main argument for bipedalism?
Despite the longevity of the paradigm that derived human bipedalism from chimpanzeelike knuckle-walking, the authors conclude that the arboreal origin of bipedalism is now overwhelmingly supported by the fossil, biomechanical and ecological evidence.
Q9. What is the important line of evidence for the evolution of the ape?
By the early 2000s the fossil record of the Eurasian and East African Miocene (23–5 million years ago (Ma)) was burgeoning and revealing the body form of early ‘crown’ hominoids (‘crown’ hominoids being the direct ancestors of all living apes, including humans).
Q10. What is the main challenge to Winder et al. 2013?
Explaining how their ancestors survived a locomotor transition in a relatively dangerous semi-open habitat remains a critical challenge to these hypotheses” (Winder et al. 2013: 334).
Q11. What evidence did Tuttle have for upright apes?
Thus features such as their broad, shallow trunks; scapulae positioned on the back rather than side of their bodies, and lumbar vertebral bodies that increased in size towards the lower end of the spine all indicated that these species were frequently upright (MacLatchy 2004; Moyà-Solà et al.