Posted on 03/20/2008 2:54:39 PM PDT by blam
Upright Walking Began 6 Million Years Ago
Newswise — A shape comparison of the most complete fossil femur (thigh bone) of one of the earliest known pre-humans, or hominins, with the femora of living apes, modern humans and other fossils, indicates the earliest form of bipedalism occurred at least six million years ago and persisted for at least four million years. William Jungers, Ph.D., of Stony Brook University, and Brian Richmond, Ph.D., of George Washington University, say their finding indicates that the fossil belongs to very early human ancestors, and that upright walking is one of the first human characteristics to appear in our lineage, right after the split between human and chimpanzee lineages. Their findings are published in the March 21 issue of the journal Science.
The research is the first thorough quantitative analysis of the Orrorin tugenensis fossil – a fragmentary piece of femur – which was discovered in Kenya in 2000 by a French research team. Dr. Jungers, Chair of Anatomical Sciences at SBU School of Medicine, and Dr. Richmond, Associate Professor of Anthropology at GWU and a member of GWU’s Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology, completed a multivariate analysis of the proximal femora shape of a young adult O. tugenensis that enabled them to pinpoint the pattern of bipedal gait for this controversial hominin. Their analysis included a large and diverse sample of apes, other early hominins, including Australopithecus, and modern humans of all body sizes.
“This research solidifies the evidence that the human lineage split off as far back as six million years ago, that we share ancestry with Orrorin, and that our ancestors were walking upright at the time,” says Dr. Richmond. “These answers were not clear before this analysis.”
“Our study confirms that as early as six million years ago, basal hominins in Africa were already similar to later australopithecines in their anatomy and inferred locomotor biomechanics,” adds Dr. Jungers. “At the same time, by way of the analysis, we see no special phylogenetic connection between Orrorin and our own genus, Homo.”
In “Orrorin tugenensis Femoral Morphology and the Evolution of Hominin Bipedalism,” the authors articulate that the analysis and morphological comparisons among femora from the fossils showed that O. tugenensis is distinct from those of modern humans and the great apes in having a long, anteroposteriorly narrow neck and wide proximal shaft. Early Homo femora have larger heads and broader necks compared to early hominins. In addition to these features, modern human femora have short necks and mediolaterally narrow shafts.
The challenge ahead, explains Dr. Jungers, is “to identify what precipitated the change from this ancient and successful adaptation of upright walking, and climbing, to our own obligate form of bipedalism.”
The Department of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University School of Medicine is known internationally for the scope and significance of its research into evolutionary morphology, including paleoanthropology, field-based vertebrate paelontology and experimental functional anatomy. The department interacts with other departments in the School of Medicine, as well as those in Biological Sciences and the Department of Anthropology, through which the Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences (IDPAS) is administered. The Stony Brook IDPAS faculty brings world-renowned strengths in functional morphology and human evolution.
Six million years ago, no wonder my back hurts.
What I want to know is when did the Apes invent chewing gum?
Ya’ll all know that this is just a theory don’t you?
While this may be true...it’s not 100%. As evidence, I offer several of the young ‘duudz’ who developed unhealthy interests in my daughters. Everyone of them was a stoop shouldered, knuckle dragging, mouth breather. Upright? Shucks, they couldn’t even keep their drawers above their skivvies...
Just sayin’...
Looks like we’ll be returning to that if the idiot government doesn’t do something about the high price of transportation.
Walk Right In
The rooftop Singers
Walk right in, sit right down
Daddy, let your mind roll on
Walk right in, sit right down
Daddy, let your mind roll on
Everybody’s talkin’ ‘bout a new way of walkin’
Do you want to lose your mind?
Walk right in, sit right down
Daddy, let your mind roll on
Walk right in, sit right down
Baby, let your hair hang down
Walk right in, sit right down
Baby, let your hair hang down
Everybody’s talkin’ ‘bout a new way of walkin’
Do you want to lose your mind?
Walk right in, sit right down
Baby, let your hair hang down
Walk right in, sit right down
Daddy, let your mind roll on
Walk right in, sit right down
Daddy, let your mind roll on
Everybody’s talkin’ ‘bout a new way of walkin’
Do you want to lose your mind?
Walk right in, sit right down
Daddy, let your mind roll on
Daddy, let your mind roll on
just a theory - so is gravity (sorry to be flippant but I heard that on the radio and have been waiting weeks to use it, thank you for the opportunity and again I apologize)
But nice that you think this hypothesis is “just a theory”; indicating you give it FAR more credence than a mere fact or hypothesis; and would elevate it far above what even the authors advocate. Or was that not your intent?
Maybe you should learn basic Science vocabulary.
I thought I read that it was actually 6,000,001 years ago ...
We could have our conservative scientists weigh in, but most of them have been banned.
No problem. Kind of funny. Evolution is often presented as fact though. I just like encourage people to not believe everything they hear and just because it was “on tv” doesn’t make it true.
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Thanks Blam.a fragmentary piece of femur - which was discovered in Kenya in 2000So this actually happened 2,000,008 years ago. |
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And I thought I was doing good to walk at seven months....silly me....
I tell people not to believe everything they hear and just because it was “in church” doesn’t make it true.
Before transforming to full upright walking, I would expect in order to face off predators, these hominids would have developed some level of language to coordinate group defense and attacks and would have routinely carried weapons such as clubs and rocks. Once they did this, I can see them having the confidence to walk away from an arboreal life.
6 million years ago? That’s incompatable with The Book. Did these “scientists” call in sick on God’s creation day?
Evolution is a fact. We can only observe it in micro fashion because few of us live to be millions of years old.
Helen Thomas excluded.
The overall concept of how this occurs is called a theory.
In scientific terms, a theory is what pulls all the facts together and comes up with an explanation.
It doesn’t mean an idea pulled out of your butt.
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