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6-Million-Year-Old Ape's Ear Suggests We Learned to Walk Upright in 3 Steps


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From a four-limbed scramble to a two-legged amble – the knack for strutting our stuff on our hind limbs is one of the more obvious features distinguishing us humans and our ilk from great apes and earlier ancestors.

Unfortunately physical evidence of the transition is scarce. With so many possible ways the process could have taken place, it's hard to say with certainty how our anatomy and its mechanical functions evolved.

A new study of an ancient ape's inner ear suggests that the evolution of human bipedalism was not a sudden uprising, but a three-part process that bridged the gap between swinging in trees and standing on solid ground.

This new evidence comes from skulls of Lufengpithecus, an ape that lived in East Asia around 6 million years ago.

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