The idea
that humans evolved from a knuckle-dragging ape, leaving chimpanzees in the
Darwin dust, was crystallized in the famous ‘ascent of man’ image. But ongoing
research on a 3.7 million year old fossilized skeleton of an early type of
human could prove the orderly procession is actually the wrong way round. Speaking
at the British Science Festival in Swansea, Professor Robin Crompton argued
that humans, apes and chimpanzees all evolved from a common ancestor who walked
upright and lived in the trees. So it was the chimps that changed their body
shape to allow them to move at high speed on all four limbs, while humans
carried on using two. And upright walking did not evolve after humans descended
from the trees and started to move around on the open savannah, but millions of
years before this. In fact, once seen as one of our defining characteristics,
developed when early humans were still in the trees.
As they
were walking on their feet, they used their hands to steady themselves on
nearby branches and gradually got the idea that sticks could have other uses. The
ascent of man image had entered popular culture, but was wrong. Chimpanzees and
humans are both descended from something more like living humans than living
chimpanzees – however uncomfortable that may be to us. The ancient fossil of an
Australopithecus hominid – the same genus as the famous Lucy – was found in
South Africa in the 1990s, but was only dated last year. Whereas Lucy was just
1.1 metres tall, the South African fossil, nicknamed Little Foot, was about the
same size as a modern western woman. According to Crompton, Lucy was a pygmy
Australopithecus, much like there are pygmy Homo sapiens today.
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