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Recent study said Human bipedalism may have evolved in trees rather than on land

According to a recent study, human bipedalism – walking upright on two legs – may have evolved in trees rather than in more open landscapes as previously thought. In a study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers from UCL, the University of Kent and Duke University in the US examined the behavior of wild chimpanzees – our closest living relative – living in the Issa Valley of western Tanzania in the region. East African Rift Valley. Known as a “savanna-mosaic” – a mix of dry open land with few trees and patches of dense forest – the chimpanzee’s habitat is very similar to that of our earliest human ancestors and was chosen to allow scientists to investigate whether the openness of this type of landscape could have encouraged bipedalism in hominins.

study found that Issa chimpanzees spent as much time in trees

The study is the first of its kind to examine whether savanna and mosaic habitats account for the increased time spent on the ground by Issa chimpanzees, and compares their behavior with other studies of their exclusively forest cousins ​​in other parts of Africa. Overall, the study found that Issa chimpanzees spent as much time in trees as other chimpanzees living in dense forests, despite their more open environment, and were not more terrestrial (on land) as expected.

In addition, although researchers expected Issa chimpanzees to walk more upright in open savanna vegetation, where they cannot easily travel through treetops, more than 85% of bipedalism occurred in trees. The authors say their findings contradict widely accepted theories that suggest it was the open, dry savanna environment that encouraged our prehistoric human relatives to walk upright — and instead suggest they may have evolved to walk on two legs to move around in the trees.

Study co-author Dr Alex Piel (UCL Anthropology) said: “We naturally assumed that because Issa has fewer trees than the typical tropical forests where most chimpanzees live, we would see individuals more often on the ground than in trees. Furthermore, because so many of the traditional drivers of bipedalism ( (like carrying objects or seeing through tall grass, for example) is associated with being on the ground, we thought we’d naturally see more bipedalism here, but that’s not what was found.

“Our study suggests that the retreat of forests in the late Miocene and Pliocene era about five million years ago and more open savannah habitats were not actually the catalyst for the evolution of bipedalism. Instead, trees likely remained central to its evolution – with the search for food-producing trees likely driving this Properties.”

To confirm their findings, the researchers recorded more than 13,700 instantaneous observations of postural behavior from 13 adult chimpanzees (six females and seven males), including nearly 2,850 observations of individual movement events (e.g., over the course of a 15-month study. They then used the tree/ground behavior relationship and vegetation (forest vs. forest) to examine patterns of association.They similarly noted each instance of bipedalism and whether it was associated with being on the ground or in trees.

The authors note that walking on two legs is a defining feature of humans compared to other great apes that “walk on their knees”. Despite their study, the researchers say why humans, alone among the apes, first began walking on two legs remains a mystery.

Study co-author Dr. Fiona Stewart (UCL Anthropology) said: “To date, numerous hypotheses for the evolution of bipedalism share the idea that hominins (human ancestors) climbed down from trees and walked upright on the ground, particularly in more arid regions. , open habitats that lacked tree cover Our data do not support this at all.

“Unfortunately, the traditional idea that less trees equals more terrestriality (dwelling on land) is simply not borne out by the Issa data. Now we need to focus on how and why these chimpanzees spend so much time in trees – and that’s what we’ll focus on next on our way to piece together this complex evolutionary puzzle.”

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