Anthropologist Says Tree Climbing Abilities of Early Hominins Decreased Rapidly in Evolutionary Process
Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - 17:35
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Jeremy M. DeSilva an anthropologist at Worcester University in Massachusetts has published "Functional Morphology of the Ankle and the Likelihood of Climbing in Early Hominins," in the peer-reviewed journal, Proceeding of the National Academies of Sciences of the USA current issue. The study includes data gathered by DeSilva in Uganda's Kibale National Park of modern chimpanzee and comparisons of hominin fossil skeletal remains dating back some 4.12 million to 1.53 million years ago. The findings appear to show that if early hominins depended on tree climbing as part of their survival repertoire, they were performing it decidedly different from modern chimpanzee locomotor activity.