Overview
- Researchers report that Ardipithecus ramidus’ talus uniquely matches chimpanzee and gorilla ankles associated with vertical climbing and plantigrade quadrupedal walking.
- The same ankle shows derived features for an enhanced push-off mechanism, indicating early elements of bipedal locomotion.
- Authors frame the work as a correction to earlier readings that cast Ardi as a generalized arboreal ancestor unlike living African apes.
- The study emphasizes that humans did not evolve from chimpanzees, proposing instead that the shared ancestor likely resembled modern chimpanzees in key locomotor traits.
- Findings appear in Communications Biology from T. C. Prang and colleagues, based on comparative analysis of the talus and calcaneus across apes, monkeys, and early hominins.