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The arboreal origins of human bipedalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2014

Susannah K.S. Thorpe
Affiliation:
1Locomotor Ecology and Biomechanics Laboratory, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK (Author for correspondence; Email: s.k.thorpe@bham.ac.uk)
Juliet M. McClymont
Affiliation:
2Department of Musculoskeletal Biology, Institute of Aging and Chronic Disease, University of Liverpool, Ashton Street, Liverpool L69 3GE, UK
Robin H. Crompton
Affiliation:
2Department of Musculoskeletal Biology, Institute of Aging and Chronic Disease, University of Liverpool, Ashton Street, Liverpool L69 3GE, UK
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Almost a century and a half ago, Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man (1871: 141) highlighted the evolution of bipedalism as one of the key features of the human lineage, freeing the hands for carrying and for using and making tools. But how did it arise? The famous footprints from Laetoli in Tanzania show that hominin ancestors were walking upright by at least 3.65 million years ago. Recent work, however, suggests a much earlier origin for bipedalism, in a Miocene primate ancestor that was still predominantly tree-dwelling. Here Susannah Thorpe, Juliet McClymont and Robin Crompton set out the evidence for that hypothesis and reject the notion that the common ancestor of great apes and humans was a knuckle-walking terrestrial species, as are gorillas and chimpanzees today. The article is followed by a series of comments, rounded off by a reply from the authors.

Type
Debate
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2014

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