Bones of ape living 12m years ago point to genesis of upright walking
The distinctive human habit of walking upright may have evolved millions of years earlier than thought, according to researchers who uncovered the remains of an ancient ape in southern Germany.
Excavations from the Hammerschmiede clay pit in Bavaria turned up fossilised bones belonging to a previously unknown baboon-sized ape that lived nearly 12m years ago, long before humans split from their modern-day cousins, the chimpanzees and bonobos.
Analysis of the bones shows that the animal, named Danuvius guggenmosi, had an unusual mix of anatomical features. While its long forearms, curved fingers and powerful, grasping thumbs were hallmarks of life spent dangling from branches, the hips, knees and feet were more human-like and better suited to walking upright, the scientists said.
“It was astonishing for us to realise during the process of research how similar certain bones were to humans, as opposed to great apes,” said Madelaine Böhme, who led the study at the University of Tübingen. The fossils, which include remains from two females, a male and a juvenile, were excavated between 2015 and 2018.
According to Böhme, the findings suggest that our upright posture can be traced to a common ancestor of humans and great apes that lived in Europe rather than Africa. When Dguggenmosi was alive, Bavaria was far hotter than it is today, and streams bordered by gallery forests meandered through the region.
The clay pit haul of fossils included teeth, pieces of jaw and spine, and a big toe that would have been handy for grasping tree branches. Arguably the most important fossils were a forearm and shin bone, which informed the scientists’ speculation about how the ape moved around.