Scientists have discovered a new interesting hints in the dorsal columns of the ancient ancestors of the people who indicate that their different subtypes moved differently depending on the environment. Published in American Journal of Physical Anthropology the study of hooklike processes of the vertebrae, which are responsible for stabilization and direction of spinal movement, and assesses their form six fossil hominids compared to modern human and non-human primates 99 20 childbirth. Using a new morphometric methods, the researchers found clear differences between the hook-shaped processes of the living primates that typically live in trees and those that do not live.
New evidence reveals striking differences between the vertebrae fully ground types and species of primates that swing and jump from branch to branch, and can help to understand how the extinct species of hominids moved in their environment. Fossils from East Africa dated to 3.5 million years ago and belong to Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy), and Homo erectus, dated at 1.8 — 1.5 million years ago, correspond to the modern human in this respect, which suggests that these extinct hominids learned to walk on land. On the contrary, the fossils from South Africa, belong to the hominid species Australopithecus sediba, revealed the processes that help in the movement of the trees.
As scientists say, although the South African species apparently were not completely “cut off from the earth”, their hooked appendages show adaptations to life on trees. Theoretically, if the battle for survival won’t “Homo erectus”, we could also maintain above-ground lifestyle.
Human evolution: back to the trees?
Ilya Hel