The theory of human evolution postulates that the modern ancestors of Homo sapiens were ancient apes. Affirming this theory is the latest research that studied a well-preserved skeleton from four million years ago. Scientists at Texas A&M University have published their article in Science Advances on what their findings suggest.
The team of four scientists: Thomas C. Prang, Kristen Ramirez, Mark Grabowski and Scott A. Williams studied the skeletal remains of Ardipithecus ramidus, also known as Ardi, which dates back 4.4 million years. The ancient skeleton was found in Ethiopia and one of its hands was exceptionally well preserved, which ended up being the basis of the research results.
By comparing the shape of Ardi’s hand with other specimens of recent human, ape, and monkey hands that were measured from bones from museum collections around the world, the researchers made comparisons of the type of locomotor actions used by early hominids or fossil human relatives. .
Talking to Texas A&M today, assistant professor of anthropology and lead author of the article, Thomas Prang said bone form gives clues about certain types of adaptation to habits or lifestyles. By making connections between bone form and behavior between living forms, scientists could make inferences about the behavior of extinct species, such as Ardi, that cannot be directly observed.
Thomas further said that his study also found evidence of a major evolutionary leap between the type of hand represented by Ardi and all subsequent hands of hominins, including that of a famous well-preserved 3.2 million skeleton. years that is in the same area of the seventies.
Thomas said that this “evolutionary leap” came at a crucial time when hominins were adapting to a more human-like vertical way of walking, and the first evidence of the manufacture of stone tools and the use of stone tools, such as animal fossil marks, were also discovered from this time. The study coincides with the classical idea first proposed by Charles Darwin in 1871 according to which the use of the hands and upper limbs for manipulation appeared in the first human relatives in relation to vertical gait, says Thomas .
Scientists believe that the evolution of human hands and feet probably occurred in a correlated way. By studying the ancient skeleton, researchers believe it could preserve the skeletal features present in the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees and, if so, could provide researchers with a great insight into how to locate the origin of the human lineage. , in addition to walking upright, with better light.
The results of this study published on Tuesday provide clues as to how the first humans began to walk upright and make similar movements performed by all humans today.