The interesting thing is that it appears to have been walking upright about 12 million years ago. This is 6 million years before humans and chimpanzees diverged. This puts the cat among the pigeons as far as the evolution of humans is concerned. Based on what the article says they had similar feet to ours, so is this a result of convergent evolution or is the human evolutionary story about to be turned upside down?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50305423
@DeepThought
Here's a more detailed writeup: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03347-0
The interpretation provided is that modern apes have developed highly specialized locomotion compared to common ancestors. The article refers to this finding as evidence of a unique category of locomotion that doesn't exist among extant species. At the evolutionary branch point, movements may have been more general.
...these apes show a hotchpotch of skeletal adaptations, with features found in combinations that are unlike anything we see in living primates, and that often leave us guessing about how these animals moved around and how much time they spent in trees or on the ground.
I think it's mostly consistent with existing ideas about human evolution, but provides additional evidence regarding the origins of bipedalism. Very interesting study.
as an aside, it annoys me when pop science news articles fail to link or cite their source material. Although they did provide some quotes from the lead auther Dr. Bohme, BBC should know better.
@wildgrass
I wonder if they will figure out if there were lineages stemming from that group or if the line went extinct before adding to the tree?
@sonhouse saidThat would probably require a few more specimens, but it's certainly possible.
@wildgrass
I wonder if they will figure out if there were lineages stemming from that group or if the line went extinct before adding to the tree?