Posted on 03/25/2009 6:34:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Walking on two legs, or bipedalism, immediately sets us apart form other apes. It frees our arms for using tools and weapons and is a key part of our evolutionary success. Scientists have put forward a few theories to explain how our upright gait evolved, but the 'savannah theory' is by far the most prolific... But this theory fails in the light of new fossils which push back the first appearance of bipedalism to a time before the forests thinned, and even before our ancestors split from those of chimpanzees. Very early hominins, including Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) and Millennium Man (Orrorin) certainly ambled along on two legs, but they did so through woodland not plains. Our arms provide a further clue. Even though our ancestors' back legs quickly picked up adaptations for bipedalism, they steadfastly kept long, grasping arms, an adaptation more suited to moving through branches. To Susannah Thorpe at the University of Birmingham, these are signs that bipedalism evolved while our ancestors were still living in trees. And she has found new support for this theory by studying Sumatra's orang-utans, who occasionally take to two legs to negotiate tricky canopies.
(Excerpt) Read more at scienceblogs.com ...
IMO this provides considerable support for the theories of Aaron G. Filler, as documented in "The Upright Ape: A New Origin of the Species". Basically he suggests that the early ancestor of the great apes, roughly synchronized with Proconsul, was already bipedal. Interestingly, this article (Thorpe et. al.) was published in June of 2007, "The Upright Ape" was released in July 2007.
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Why do you think they call it a “stand of trees”?
INTREP
Conservatives’ ancestors developed their skills in the John Birch. /rimshot
If Man evolved from Apes, what did Apes evolve from?
man didn’t evolve from anything and neither did the animals on earth. It’s an atheist lie to discrdit that we were all created ‘as is’ in family genus species terms. Anybody who actually believes far left atheist lies don’t have any brains.Can anything on earth build itself from nothing? i didn’t think so. therefore everything on earth had a creator.
Whales...duh, everyone knows that!! /sarc/
The Scars of Evolution:"The most remarkable aspect of Todaro's discovery emerged when he examined Homo Sapiens for the 'baboon marker'. It was not there... Todaro drew one firm conclusion. 'The ancestors of man did not develop in a geographical area where they would have been in contact with the baboon. I would argue that the data we are presenting imply a non-African origin of man millions of years ago.'"
What Our Bodies Tell Us
About Human Origins
by Elaine Morgan
I think the theory that man originated in Africa is based solely on the fact that the oldest existing remains have been found in Africa.
The harsh climates in other parts of the world most likely destroyed whatever remains of ancient Man that may have existed.
I wholeheartedly agree. In addition, the continental shelf has been exposed more time than not during the past two million year, and it was warmer down there.
monkeys
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