Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Chimp-sized hominid walked upright on two legs 6 million years ago
Pennsylvania State University ^ | 02 September 2004 | News Office Staff

Posted on 09/05/2004 4:09:47 PM PDT by PatrickHenry

Recent fossil evidence suggests that a hominid, the size of a chimp, walked upright on two legs in Kenya's Tugen Hills, over 6 million years ago --- about 3 million years earlier than "Lucy," the most famous early biped in our lineage.

Dr. Robert Eckhardt, professor of developmental genetics and evolutionary morphology, Laboratory of Comparative Morphology and Mechanics (LCMM), Department of Kinesiology at Penn State, led the U.S. research team responsible for analysis of the CT scans of the internal structure of the fossil bone. Eckhardt says, "We have solid evidence of the earliest upright posture and bipedalism securely dated to six million years."

The evidence is detailed in the current (Sept. 3) issue of Science in a report, "External and Internal Morphology of the BAR 1002'00 Orrorin tugenensis Femur." Eckhardt's co-authors are [omitted numerous names, see original article if you're interested].

The fossil the team studied is part of a left thighbone unearthed nearly four years ago by Senut and Pickford at their dig in the Kenyan Lukeino Formation. The fragment includes the intact head of the left thighbone -- the ball that is inserted into the hip socket joint -- plus the bony neck that connects the ball to the thighbone shaft as well as part of the thighbone shaft.

Measurements, chiefly carried out by Dr. Galik, show that the fossil bone is about the same size as a chimpanzee's. However, CT scans of the interior of the bone reveal that the neck connecting the ball to the shaft is thinner on top than it is on the bottom, a sign the researchers say that the individual from which it came walked on two legs.

Eckhardt says, "In present day chimps and gorillas, the thicknesses in the upper and lower parts of that bone are approximately equal. In modern humans, the bone on top is thinner than on the bottom by a ratio of one to four or more. The ratio in this fossil is one to three."

The ratio in the fossil is evidence for transition to an upright posture and habitual bipedal gait the researchers argue. In addition, Eckhardt notes, because walking upright is the essential mark of a hominid, the ratio is functional evidence that the bones fossilized at Lukeino were from hominids.

The researchers write, "In known features, external and internal, BR1002'00 exhibits a total morphological pattern distinct from African apes, diagnostic of bipedal locomotion and appropriate for a population standing at the dawn of the human lineage."

The imaging research was supported, in part, by grants from the American Philosophical Society and from Sigma Xi.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: crevolist; darwin; evolution; hominid
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last
Here's a link to the photos: Bone Reconstructions and Tomographic Photos.
1 posted on 09/05/2004 4:09:50 PM PDT by PatrickHenry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: VadeRetro; jennyp; Junior; longshadow; RadioAstronomer; Physicist; LogicWings; Doctor Stochastic; ..
Evolution Ping! This list is for the evolution side of evolution threads, and maybe other science topics like cosmology.
See the list's description in my freeper homepage. Then FReepmail me to be added or dropped.
2 posted on 09/05/2004 4:11:08 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (The internet on a dial-up connection is as bad as it gets.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry

So? My dogs can walk for quite a while on their hind legs if I hold a piece of food up over their heads.


3 posted on 09/05/2004 4:11:28 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Senator Kerry is all rice, no shrapnel.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry

Earliest and most intelligent demo voters known.


4 posted on 09/05/2004 4:13:50 PM PDT by ProudVet77 (It ain't over till the TRex throws out TF'n)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

The thread's already moved to "Chat."


5 posted on 09/05/2004 4:16:15 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (The internet on a dial-up connection is as bad as it gets.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry

Wuz that before or after Adam ate the apple??


6 posted on 09/05/2004 4:17:16 PM PDT by sandydipper (Less government is best government!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry
Wow they really found a whole part of a piece of one bone? ...........And from that they can reconstruct what Senator Byrd may have looked like a thousand years ago.

Notice how they use words like "neck" and "head" to describe the different parts of this one bone fragment. To read it quickly u might get the impression they found a whole skeleton.
7 posted on 09/05/2004 4:19:04 PM PDT by Conservative_boy_in_Bangkok (I'm as mad as Zell and I'm not going to take it anymore!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jeff Chandler
So? My dogs can walk for quite a while on their hind legs if I hold a piece of food up over their heads.

Are you saying there must have been another creature that followed the earliest hominids around, holding the hominid's food up over their heads?
8 posted on 09/05/2004 4:19:07 PM PDT by gcruse (http://gcruse.typepad.com/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry

Michael Moore?


9 posted on 09/05/2004 4:22:01 PM PDT by PeterFinn ("John Kerry is a flip-flopper and a phony" - Howell Raines quoted in the Wash. Post)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry

Waiting for AiG or ICR to announce the find as "an allegedly 6 million years old fully anatomically modern human." (Or maybe one or both will scream "An ape! Just an ape!")


10 posted on 09/05/2004 4:24:40 PM PDT by VadeRetro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PeterFinn

The title said chimp sized, not BLIMP sized!


11 posted on 09/05/2004 4:26:53 PM PDT by flashbunny (Hey - click on my name to see an anti-kerry bumper sticker! Do it! Now!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: VadeRetro
Waiting for AiG or ICR to announce ...

No need. If the news is buried in the "Chat" forum, no one will know about it.

12 posted on 09/05/2004 4:29:25 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (The internet on a dial-up connection is as bad as it gets.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry

What a crock! Everyone who is anyone in the scientific community knows it isn't a day over five million years ago.

I hate when scientific gadflys exaggerate like that./s/off;)


13 posted on 09/05/2004 4:31:00 PM PDT by exit82 (Righteousness exalts a nation...... Proverbs 14:34)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Conservative_boy_in_Bangkok
We have solid evidence of the earliest upright posture and bipedalism securely dated to six million years."

And that evidence is...?

14 posted on 09/05/2004 4:39:46 PM PDT by LiteKeeper (Secularization of America ALERT)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: gcruse

>>Are you saying there must have been another creature that followed the earliest hominids around, holding the hominid's food up over their heads?<<

No, I just like to talk about my dogs.


15 posted on 09/05/2004 4:41:37 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Senator Kerry is all rice, no shrapnel.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: LiteKeeper
And that evidence is...? ...in the article.
16 posted on 09/05/2004 6:12:30 PM PDT by jennyp (It's a gift........And a curse.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: VadeRetro

Welcome to the Chat Forum, home of FR's liveliest threads.
17 posted on 09/05/2004 6:50:50 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (The internet on a dial-up connection is as bad as it gets.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry

Interesting article, thanks Patrick.


18 posted on 09/05/2004 7:23:50 PM PDT by Victoria Delsoul (Kerry's testimony before the Senate was instrumental to America's defeat in the Vietnam War)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry

thanks for the ping, as always.


19 posted on 09/05/2004 7:25:03 PM PDT by Jalapeno
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry

Thanks for the ping!


20 posted on 09/05/2004 7:31:02 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson