AN APE that lived 8 million years ago was able to walk upright, say researchers in Spain. Walking on two legs was supposed to be a uniquely human characteristic.
Meike K枚hler and Salvador Moy脿-Sol脿 of the Institute of Palaeontology in Sabadell studied hundreds of fossil fragments of ape Oreopithecus bambolii. The fragments were unearthed in Italy four decades ago.
The researchers claim in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (vol 94, p 11747) that the anatomy of its legs indicates that the ape, which would have been barely a metre tall, walked upright.
Phyllis Lee, a primatologist at Cambridge University, argues that the ape may not have walked upright all the time. She says the question is how much time Oreopithecus spent on the ground and how much in the trees. “I cannot imagine forest-dwelling apes being habitual bipeds.”
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