Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing found that the evolution of upright walking in primates occurred in three stages. The results of the research were presented in a scientific journal Innovation.
The authors examined the size and shape of semicircular canals in the inner ear of the extinct primate Lufengpithecus using 3D multiscale and multimodal imaging. They compared the data obtained with information about the structure of the inner ear in other fossils and modern monkeys. As a result, scientists concluded that the evolution of upright walking in primates occurred in three stages.
At first, the earliest monkeys moved through trees in much the same way as modern Asian gibbons. Later, primates, the last common ancestors of monkeys and humans, learned to climb, climb, hang by hand, and move on two and four legs. Finally, human upright walking evolved from this large repertoire of motor movements.
Anthropologists before Establishedthat humans settled in Europe earlier than previously thought.