Our Ancient Ancestors May Have Climbed Trees with ‘Monkey’ Feet

image 11482f Ardipithecus ramidus


Drummond-Clarke et al. show that trees were an essential component of the hominin adaptive niche, with bipedalism evolving in an arboreal context, likely driven by foraging strategy. Illustration by Arturo Asensio, via Quo.es.

An enduring debate in paleoanthropology asks what kind of foot the last common ancestor (LCA) of humans and chimpanzees had: one built like a modern ape’s for climbing straight up trees, or one built more like a generalized monkey’s, less suited to vertical climbing.

The post Our Ancient Ancestors May Have Climbed Trees with ‘Monkey’ Feet appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.



Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *