Secular Café: Human ancestor had "climbing" feet

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Human ancestor had "climbing" feet Mar 29th 2012, 14:59 more on the evolution of humans front: Quote: Ancient Human Had Feet Like an Ape A recently discovered fossil foot hints that tree-dwellers lived alongside species built for walking By Brian Switek and Nature magazine | March 29, 2012 A recently discovered fossil foot hints that tree-dwellers lived alongside species built for walk Researcher Stephanie Melillo holds the fourth metatarsal of the Burtele partial foot right after its discovery. The team found eight bones from the front half of a right foot. Such hominine fossils are rare, since they are fragile and are often destroyed in the face of carnivores and decay. Image: The Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Photo courtesy: Yohannes Haile-Selassie A fossil discovered in Ethiopia suggests that humans' prehistoric relatives may have lived in the trees for a million years longer than was previously thought. The find may be our first glimpse of a separate, extinct, branch of the human family, collectively called hominines. It also hints that there may have been several evolutionary paths leading to feet adapted for walking upright. The fossil, a partial foot, was found in 3.4-million-year-old rocks at Woranso-Mille in the Afar region of Ethiopia. Bones of the hominine Australopithecus afarensis — the species to which the famous 'Lucy' skeleton belongs — have also been found in this location and from the same period. But unlike Au. afarensis, the latest find has an opposable big toe — rather like a thumb on the foot — that would have allowed the species to grasp branches while climbing. Modern apes have similar toes, but the youngest hominine previously known to have them is Ardipithecus ramidus, which lived about 4.4 million years ago. The details of the discovery are published today in Nature1. Au. afarensishas a big toe that is more closely aligned with the other digits on the foot, an adaptation that provides support during upright walking. Au. afarensis "was fully bipedal and had already abandoned life in the trees", says study author Yohannes Haile-Selassie of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in Ohio, whereas the newly discovered creature had not seemingly committed to life on the ground. .... http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...et-like-an-ape

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