• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Controversial Bones Show When Early Humans First Started Walking On Two Feet

August 24, 2022 by Deborah Bloomfield

Some 7 million years ago, the edges of the Sahara desert may have been one of the first places our distant relatives stopped scampering around on all-fours and started strutting around on two feet. 

Ancient arm and leg bones found in present-day Chad suggest that one of the oldest known species in the human family tree – Sahelanthropus tchadensis– was walking on two feet at least 7 million years ago, according to a new study published in the journal Nature today. 

The discovery comes from the remains unearthed at Toros-Menalla in the Djurab Desert, northern Chad. Among the finds was a skull of an individual nicknamed Toumaï, which means “hope of life” in the local Daza language. It was identified as a new species that evolved very shortly after humans and chimpanzees diverged, approximately seven million years ago. 

When these fossilized remains were first discovered in 2001, a study of Toumaï’s skull indicated that this extinct hominin had an upright spinal column and an upright posture, suggesting they were perhaps bipedal. However, a huge amount of debate surrounded this question. In 2020, another study looked at a femur bone and concluded that this individual was “not habitually bipedal.” 

In this latest study, researchers have taken a deep look at two ulnae (forearm bone) and a femur (thigh bone) also discovered at the site, which may or may not have belonged to Toumaï.

3D models of the postcranial material of Sahelanthropus tchadensis. From left to right: the femur, in posterior and medial view; the right and left ulnae, in anterior and lateral view.

3D models of the postcranial material of Sahelanthropus tchadensis. From left to right: the femur, in posterior and medial view; the right and left ulnae, in anterior and lateral view. Image credit: © Franck Guy / PALEVOPRIM / CNRS – University of Poitiers

The team used a bunch of advanced measuring methods to examine the shape of the bones, then compared them to bones of chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, Miocene apes, and members of the human group, including Orrorin, Ardipithecus, australopithecines, ancient Homo, and Homo sapiens.

The anatomy of the femur suggested that S. tchadensis was bipedal on land. Simultaneously, the forearm suggests that this early ancestor was also equipped to clamber up trees. As you might expect from a relative of both humans and chimps, it appears this species could walk on two legs, but could also be found climbing around trees. 

Compared to modern Homo sapiens, we would consider S. tchadensis to be fairly ape-like, bearing physical similarities to a chimp with a relatively puny brain to match – which is partially why the question of bipedalism in the species is so controversial. 

Advertisement

While this latest research doesn’t mean the debate is done and dusted, it’s been said to provide some of the strongest evidence yet that this very important character in the human story walked on two legs. 

“The Sahelanthropus femur doesn’t have ‘smoking-gun’ traces of bipedalism, but it looks more like that of a bipedal hominin than that of a quadrupedal ape. When considered in conjunction with the orientation of the foramen magnum, which is compatible only with bipedalism, it seems reasonable to infer that Sahelanthropus was some type of biped,” Daniel E Lieberman from the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University wrote in an accompanying News & Views article.  

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. PassFort, a RegTech SaaS for KYC and AML, nets $16.2M
  2. UK set for COVID booster programme as PM Johnson sets out winter plan
  3. Boeing showcases eco-friendly tech as industry faces pressure
  4. White House weighs broader oversight of cryptocurrency market

Source Link: Controversial Bones Show When Early Humans First Started Walking On Two Feet

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • How To Watch The “Awkward” Partial Solar Eclipse This Weekend
  • World’s Oldest Pots: 20,000-Year-Old Vessels May Have Been Used For Cooking Clams Or Brewing Beer
  • “The Body Is Slowly And Continuously Heated”: 14,000-Year-Old Smoked Mummies Are World’s Oldest
  • Pizza Slices, Polaroid Pictures, And Over 300 Hats: What’s Left Behind In Yellowstone’s Hydrothermal Areas?
  • The Mathematical Paradox That Lets You Create Something From Nothing
  • Ancient Asteroid Ripped Apart In Collision Had Flowing Water
  • Flying Foxes Include The World’s Biggest Bat And The Largest Mammal Capable Of True Flight
  • NASA Responds To Claims That Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Is An Advanced Alien Spacecraft
  • Millions Of Tons Of Gold Are In Earth’s Oceans, Potentially Worth Over $2 Quadrillion
  • The Race Back To The Moon: US Vs China, Will What Happens Next Change The Future?
  • NOAA Issues G3 Geomagnetic Storm Warning As 500,000 Kilometer Hole Sends Solar Wind At Earth
  • Lasting 776 Days, This Is The Longest Case Of COVID-19 Ever Recorded
  • Living Cement: The Microbes In Your Walls Could Power The Future
  • What Can Your Earwax Reveal About Your Health?
  • Ever Seen A Giraffe Use An Inhaler? Now You Can, And It’s Incredibly Wholesome
  • Martian Mudstone Has Features That Might Be Biosignatures, New Brain Implant Can Decode Your Internal Monologue, And Much More This Week
  • Crocodiles Weren’t All Blood-Thirsty Killers, Some Evolved To Be Plant-Eating Vegetarians
  • Stratospheric Warming Event May Be Unfolding In The Southern Polar Vortex, Shaking Up Global Weather Systems
  • 15 Years Ago, Bees In Brooklyn Appeared Red After Snacking Where They Shouldn’t
  • Carnian Pluvial Event: It Rained For 2 Million Years — And It Changed Planet Earth Forever
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version