Utopia

Ancestors of humans learned to walk in trees

Scientists from the United Kingdom who spent one year watching orangutans have revealed in a study that humans may have learned to walk while still living in the trees, and that humans may not be that closely related to chimpanzees.

"As the forests became sparse, the strategy of our human ancestors was more or less to abandon the canopies and come down to the ground," said one scientist.

Museums and schools across the world have been teaching that humans evolved from an animal much like that of a chimpanzee and that humans started to walk along the forest floors, with their arms hanging, and knuckles scraping across the ground. It is also taught that those animals then began to walk upright once they adapted to living on the ground.

Orangutans were observed by a researcher for one year. She documented that the orangutans would generally walk on their hands and feet, but when food was at a height that they could not reach, the orangutans would stand on their feet, extend upright, and grab the fruit or food item they want. "When they move to the skinniest branches, where the tastiest fruit grows, they stand stiffly straight-legged, like a person," she added.

The researchers also compared evidence from the remains of Lucy, past climate conditions on the planet and fossils to the workings of orangutans, and all suggest that humans were living and swinging in the trees for a much longer period of time than previously thought. The study shows that humans may have learned to walk at least 24 million years ago, rather than 6 million years ago.

Some experts disagree with the study. "The main evidence is that our closest living relatives are not orangutans, they're chimps and gorillas, and since both climb trees and walk on their knuckles, it's most likely our ancestors did that too. One of the only anatomical features we share explicitly with chimps and gorillas is that we only have eight wrist bones, while almost all other primates have nine," said anthropologist at George Washington University, Brian Richmond.

Story Source: Wikinews
June 6th, 2007

English Vocabulary Notes

sparse = less dense

canopy = the leaves and branches of trees, that make a kind of roof in a forest:

the forest canopy
knuckles = the joints in your fingers
scraping across = touching and moving across
upright = standing on their feet
skinniest = thinnest