As early as six million years ago, apparently close to the beginning of the human lineage, an ancestral species had already developed the transforming ability for upright walking, scientists reported on Thursday.
A1 Humans Not the First to Walk A new analysis of a fossil thigh bone yielded strong evidence that as early as six million years ago, close to the beginning of the human lineage, an ancestral species had already developed the transforming ability for upright walking, scientists reported.
The article provides an overview of several fossil fragments, including an important portion of a jawbone that provides proof, the authors say, that an upright monkey scientists had named Homo rudolfensis was definitely a separate species (one with a distinctly flat face) from our erectus forebears.
Their arms grew shorter, their legs longer, and their brain cases bigger until the Java Man, or the upright monkey-man as scientists have named the animal, was evolved.
Some scientists contend that this upright swimming posture evolved shortly after the expansion of sea grasses in the western Pacific roughly 25 million years ago.
The discovery of his leg and foot bones was hugely significant, revealing to scientists that Neanderthals walked upright, contradicting previous research.
The scientists maintain that Ardipithecus stood upright, based on the shapes of bones in its feet, legs, pelvis and spine.
BEHIND THE NEWS The new species, Australopithecus sediba, walked upright on long humanlike legs but climbed trees with apelike arms, scientists said.
To assertions by the discoverers that the individual mostly walked upright and was a direct ancestor of modern humans, many prominent scientists have reacted with head-shaking skepticism bordering on disbelief.
Examining the upright skeleton, Dr. Tattersall disputed the notion, once current even among some scientists, that Neanderthals may have been so humanlike that if dressed in contemporary clothing, they could have passed unrecognized on the subway.
