Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T23:44:34.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The arboreal origins of human bipedalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2014

Susannah K.S. Thorpe ,
Juliet M. McClymont  and
Robin H. Crompton
Susannah K.S. Thorpe
Affiliation:
1Locomotor Ecology and Biomechanics Laboratory, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK (Author for correspondence; Email: [email protected])
Juliet M. McClymont
Affiliation:
2Department of Musculoskeletal Biology, Institute of Aging and Chronic Disease, University of Liverpool, Ashton Street, Liverpool L69 3GE, UK
Robin H. Crompton
Affiliation:
2Department of Musculoskeletal Biology, Institute of Aging and Chronic Disease, University of Liverpool, Ashton Street, Liverpool L69 3GE, UK
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Almost a century and a half ago, Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man (1871: 141) highlighted the evolution of bipedalism as one of the key features of the human lineage, freeing the hands for carrying and for using and making tools. But how did it arise? The famous footprints from Laetoli in Tanzania show that hominin ancestors were walking upright by at least 3.65 million years ago. Recent work, however, suggests a much earlier origin for bipedalism, in a Miocene primate ancestor that was still predominantly tree-dwelling. Here Susannah Thorpe, Juliet McClymont and Robin Crompton set out the evidence for that hypothesis and reject the notion that the common ancestor of great apes and humans was a knuckle-walking terrestrial species, as are gorillas and chimpanzees today. The article is followed by a series of comments, rounded off by a reply from the authors.

Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 341 , September 2014 , pp. 906 - 914
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2014

References

Almecija, S., Alba, D.M. & Moyà-solà, S.. 2009. Pierolapithecus and the functional morphology of Miocene ape hand phalanges: paleobiological and evolutionary implications. Journal of Human Evolution 57: 284–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.02.008CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bates, K.T., Collins, D., Savage, R., McClymont, J.M., Webster, E., Pataky, T.C., D'août, K., Sellers, W.I., Bennett, M.R. & Crompton, R.H.. 2013 The evolution of compliance in the human lateral midfoot. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 280: 1818. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1818CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crompton, R.H. & Thorpe, S.K.S.. 2007. Response to technical comment on “Origin of human bipedalism as an adaptation for locomotion on flexible branches”. Science 318: 1066. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1146580CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crompton, R.H., Li, Y., Thorpe, S.K.S., Wang, W.J., Savage, R., Payne, R., Carey, T.C., Aerts, P., Elsacker, L. Van, Hofstetter, A., Gunther, M.M., D'août, K. & Declerq, D.. 2003. The biomechanical evolution of erect bipedality. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 243: 135–46.Google Scholar
Crompton, R.H., Vereeke, E. & Thorpe, S.K.S.. 2008. Locomotion and posture from the common hominoid ancestor to fully modern hominins, with special reference to the last common panin/hominin ancestor. Journal of Anatomy 212: 501–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7580.2008.00870.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crompton, R.H., Sellers, W.I. & Thorpe, S.K.S.. 2010. Arborealism, terrestrialism and bipedalism. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 365: 3301–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0035CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crompton, R.H., Pataky, T.C., Savage, R., D'août, K., Bennett, M.R., Day, M.H., Morse, S. & Sellers, W.I.. 2012. Human-like external function of the foot, and fully upright gait, confirmed in the 3.66 million year old Laetoli hominin footprints by topographic statistics, experimental footprint-formation and computer simulation. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 9: 707–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2011.0258CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darwin, C.R. 1871. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. Volume 1. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Day, M.H. & Wickens, E.H.. 1980. Laetoli Pliocene hominid footprints and bipedalism. Nature 286: 385–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/286385a0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleagle, J.G., Stern, J.T., Jungers, W.L., Susman, R.L., Vangor, A.K. & Wells, J.P.. 1981. Climbing: a biomechanical link with brachiation and with bipedalism. Symposium of the Zoological Society of London 48: 359–75.Google Scholar
Gebo, D.L. 1996. Climbing, brachiation, and terrestrial quadrupedalism: historical precursors of hominid bipedalism. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 101: 55–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199609)101:1<55::AID-AJPA5>3.0.CO;2-C3.0.CO;2-C>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hunt, K.D. 1992. Positional behavior of Pan troglodytes in the Mahale Mountains and Gombe Stream National Parks, Tanzania. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 87: 83–105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330870108CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gebo, D.L. 1996. The postural feeding hypothesis: an ecological model for the evolution of bipedalism. South African Journal of Science 92: 77–90.Google Scholar
Hunt, K.D., Cant, J.G.H., Gebo, D.L., Rose, M.D., Walker, S.E. & Youlatos, D.. 1996. Standardized descriptions of primate locomotor and postural modes. Primates 37: 363–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keith, A. 1903. The extent to which the posterior segments of the body have been transmuted and suppressed in the evolution of man and allied primates. Journal of Anatomy and Physiology 37: 18–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02381373Google Scholar
Keith, A. 1923. Man's posture: its evolution and disorders. British Medical Journal 1: 451–672. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.3246.451CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kivell, T.L. & Schmitt, D.. 2009. Independent evolution of knuckle-walking in African apes shows that humans did not evolve from a knuckle-walking ancestor. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 106: 14241–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0901280106CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MaClatchy, L. 2004. The oldest ape. Evolutionary Anthropology 13: 90–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/evan.10133CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morton, D.J. 1922. Evolution of the human foot - I. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 5: 305–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330050409CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moyà-Solà, S., Köhler, M., Alba, D.M., Casanovas-Vilar, I. & Galindo, J.. 2004. Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, a new Middle Miocene great ape from Spain. Science 306: 1339–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1103094CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nakatsukasa, M., Pickford, M., Egi, N. & Senut, B.. 2007. Femur length, body mass and stature estimates of Orrorin tugenensis, a 6 Ma hominid from Kenya. Primates 48: 171–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10329-007-0040-7CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Higgins, P. & Elton, S.. 2007. Walking on trees. Science 316: 1292–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1143571CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pontzer, H. 2012. Ecological energetics in early Homo. Current Anthropology 53: S346–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/667402CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prost, J.H. 1980. Origin of bipedalism. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 52: 175–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330520204CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Remis, M. 1995. Effects of body size and social context on the arboreal activities of lowland gorillas in the Central African Republic. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 97: 413–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330970408CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richmond, B.G. & Strait, D.S.. 2000. Evidence that humans evolved from a knuckle-walking ancestor. Nature 404: 382–85. http://dx.doi. org/10.1038/35006045CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sayers, K. & Lovejoy, C.O.. 2008. The chimpanzee has no clothes. Current Anthropology 49: 87–114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/523675CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Senut, B. 2011. Fifty years of Debate on the origins of human bipedalism. Journal of Biological Research 84: 37–46.Google Scholar
Stanford, C.B. 2006. Arboreal bipedalism in wild chimpanzees: implications for the evolution of hominid posture and locomotion. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 129: 225–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.20284CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thorpe, S.K.S. & Crompton, R.H.. 2005. Locomotor ecology of wild orangutans (Pongo abelii) in the Gunung Leuser Ecosystem, Sumatra, Indonesia: a multivariate analysis using log-linear modelling. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 127: 58–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.20151CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thorpe, S.K.S. 2006. Orangutan positional behavior and the nature of arboreal locomotion in Hominoidea. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 131: 384–401. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.20422CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thorpe, S.K.S., Holder, R. & Crompton, R.H.. 2007a. Origin of human bipedalism as an adaptation for locomotion on flexible branches. Science 316: 1328–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1140799CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thorpe, S.K.S., Crompton, R.H. & Alexander, R. McN.. 2007b. Orangutans utilise compliant branches to lower the energetic cost of locomotion. Biology Letters 3: 253–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2007.0049CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuttle, R.H. 1974. Darwin's apes, dental apes and the descent of man. Current Anthropology 15: 389–426. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/201494CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuttle, R.H. 1981. Evolution of hominid bipedalism and prehensile capabilities. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 292: 89–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1981.0016CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuttle, R.H. & Beck, B.B.. 1972. Knuckle walking hand postures in an orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus). Nature 236: 33–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/236033a0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, J.C., Payne, R., Chamberlain, A.C., Jones, R. & Sellers, W.I.. 2009. The kinematics of load carrying in humans and great apes: implications for the evolution of human bipedalism. Folia Primatologia 80: 309–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000258646CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Winder, I.C., King, G.C.P., Devès, M. & Bailey, G.N.. 2013. Complex topography and human evolution: the missing link. Antiquity 87: 333–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar