Did our ancestors knuckle-walk?

Mike Dainton ()
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Mike Dainton: New Medical School, University of Liverpool

Nature, 2001, vol. 410, issue 6826, 324-325

Abstract: Abstract All African apes walk on their knuckles. There is no evidence for this behaviour in the earliest hominids, however, which conflicts with molecular DNA evidence suggesting that chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than to gorillas. On the basis of a multivariate analysis of four traits of the proximal wrist joint, Richmond and Strait1 claim that African apes and early hominids do share a common knuckle-walking ancestor. I propose that these traits are not uniquely associated with knuckle-walking and question the basis of their conclusion. It is still possible that no human ancestor knuckle-walked and that this behaviour evolved independently in different species.

Date: 2001
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DOI: 10.1038/35066634

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