向解开远古谜团迈进一步

Did the earliest known hominin, which lived 7 million years ago, walk on two legs like a modern human? It’s complicated, finds James Woodford A LONG-RUNNING and bitterly fought dispute over whether Sahelanthropus tchadensis, the earliest known hominin, had a knuckle-walking gait, like chimpanzees, or walked upright, like humans, may have been settled – but not everyone is convinced. Scott Williams at New York University and his colleagues say that reanalysis of fossil remains of S. tchadensis shows it had at least three key anatomical features that together demonstrate that it was our earliest known hominin ancestor to be bipedal. It has, however, been a lengthy journey to reach this point. …