KWing more derived than bipedalism (Re: "why not move on 4 legs" Re: We were never knuckle draggers




Op 06-06-2007 23:04, in artikel
1181163890.813183.304520@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Lee Olsen
<paleocity@xxxxxxxxxxx> schreef:



Yes, that's obvious: knuckle-walking is more derived than bipedalism: in
order to evolve from palm-walking (all primates incL.human infants,
except
chimps & gorillas) to knuckle-walking (walking on the dorsal instead of
on
the ventral side of the hand), chimps & gorillas needed an intermediary
phase where their hands were +-not used for pronograde locomotion. This
intermediary phase was not arm-hanging (alone): otherwise gibbons &
orangs
would knuckle-walk on the ground, but they're palm-walkers. All apes
still
walk regularly or occasionally on 2 legs, so the intermediary phase was
(short-legged) bipedalism (probably in combination with climbing arms
overhead).

.

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