Science Daily
Fossil feet may be misleading scientists about human evolution
2026-08-31
Wild monkeys in West Africa can climb vertical tree trunks using foot flexibility scientists did not realize they possessed. The discovery challenges a key assumption about what the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees looked like and how it moved.
Why It Matters
This suggests that fossil foot evidence used to reconstruct early hominin locomotion and the human-chimpanzee split may require reinterpretation.
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