Re: chimps on the savanna? Nooooo.....

Alex Duncan (aduncan@mail.utexas.edu)
22 Oct 1995 23:22:37 GMT

In article <814359740snz@crowleyp.demon.co.uk> Paul Crowley,
Paul@crowleyp.demon.co.uk writes:

>Alternatively, can anyone suggest likely adaptions during the last
>5-6Myr?

The most likely change in the chimp lineage in the last 5 - 6 Myr is
knuckle walking as an adaptation to terrestrialism.

Simply because of temporal proximity, the early australopithecines and
Ardipithecus are better models for the LCA than chimps. Unfortunately,
because they're extinct, they don't tell us as much.

Alex Duncan
Dept. of Anthropology
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712-1086
512-471-4206
aduncan@mail.utexas.edu