Bringing trees back into the human evolutionary story: recent evidence from extant great apes [PDF]
Communicative & Integrative Biology, 2023 Hypotheses have historically linked the emergence and evolution of defining human characteristics such as bipedal walking to ground-dwelling, envisioning our earliest ancestors as living in treeless savannahs (i.e.
Rhianna C. Drummond-Clarke
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Terrestrial Positional Behavior of Wild Pongo pygmaeus. [PDF]
Am J Biol AnthropolABSTRACT Objectives As a predominantly arboreal animal in the wild, the terrestrial positional behavior of Pongo pygmaeus is poorly understood, having been studied almost exclusively in captive settings. This study uses camera‐trap footage to provide the first assessment of wild orangutan terrestrial locomotor and postural behavior on natural ...
Orlikoff ER +7 more
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Hindlimb functional morphology and locomotor biomechanics of the small Late Triassic pseudosuchian reptile Gracilisuchus stipanicicorum (Archosauria: Gracilisuchidae). [PDF]
J AnatA three‐dimensional biomechanical model of the musculoskeletal system is used to analyse the potential locomotor functions of the small (~1 kg) Late Triassic archosaurian reptile Gracilisuchus stipanicicorum. The study finds that, potentially like the ancestral archosaur, this taxon was probably quadrupedal, plantigrade and neither strongly sprawling ...
Lecuona A +3 more
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Bipedalism and brain expansion explain human handedness. [PDF]
PLoS BiologyHumans exhibit a striking and near-universal population-level right-hand preference, an evolutionary singularity unmatched among primates. Despite its pervasiveness, the origins of this lateralization remain poorly understood.
Thomas A Püschel +2 more
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The past, present and future of uterine fibroids [PDF]
Facts, Views & Vision in ObGynHuman evolution –specifically the development of bipedalism– altered the shape of the pelvis so that legs alone provided locomotion across the ground. As a result, the forelimbs were freed from locomotion.
Fred Burbank +2 more
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Ardipithecus ramidus ankle provides evidence for African ape-like vertical climbing in the earliest hominins [PDF]
Communications BiologyThe origin of the human lineage was catalyzed by bipedalism, but how this locomotor mode evolved is debated. We investigated the evolutionary context of human bipedalism by analyzing the morphology of the 4.4 million-year-old hominin talus attributed to ...
Thomas C. Prang +4 more
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Muscle synergy in several locomotor modes in chimpanzees and Japanese macaques, and its implications for the evolutionary origin of bipedalism through shared muscle synergies [PDF]
Scientific ReportsRecent evidence indicates that human ancestors utilized a combination of quadrupedal walking, climbing, and bipedal walking. Therefore, the origin of bipedalism may be linked to underlying mechanisms supporting diverse locomotor modes.
Ryosuke Goto +4 more
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Editorial: The human foot: function in progress [PDF]
Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 2023 Karl T. Bates +4 more
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Revue de Primatologie, 2022 In recent decades, the way paleoanthropologists conceive of bipedalism has changed considerably. If bipedalism was once thought to be a unique characteristic, specific to the hominin lineage and marking its origin, the hypothesis of its anatomical and ...
Mathilde Lequin, François Marchal
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Homoplasy in the evolution of modern human-like joint proportions in Australopithecus afarensis
eLife, 2021 The evolution of bipedalism and reduced reliance on arboreality in hominins resulted in larger lower limb joints relative to the joints of the upper limb. The pattern and timing of this transition, however, remains unresolved.
Anjali M Prabhat +5 more
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