early Hominoidea were aquarboreal

[Marc Verhaegen]

A review of the distal femur in Australopithecus
Catherine K Miller & Jeremy M DeSilva 2023
Evol.Anthr.doi org/10.1002/evan.22012

-In 1938, the first distal femur of a fossil Australopithecus was discovered at Sterkfontein.
-A decade later, another distal femur was discovered at the same locality.
These 2 fossil femora were the subject of a foundational paper authored by Kingsbury Heiple & Owen Lovejoy in 1971:
they discussed the functionally relevant anatomies, and noted their strong affinity to the modern human (Hs) condition.

Here, we update this work by including 8 more fossil Australopithecus distal femora, an expanded comparative data-set + additional linear measurements.
Just as Heiple & Lovejoy (1971), we find strong overlap between Hs & cercopithecoids, except for inferiorly flattened condyles & a high bicondylar angle:
both characterize Hs & Australopithecus, and are directly related to striding BPism.
All other measured aspects of the femora are by-products of these key morphological traits.
Additional fossil material from the early-Pliocene will help to inform the evolution of the hominin distal femur & its condition in the Pan-Homo common ancestor that preceded BP locomotion.

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preceded? :-D
Early Hominoidea were already "BP":
vertically wading bipedally + climbing arms overhead in the branches above the water: upright!
Google "aquarboreal"

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Human evolution discussions & information (no savanna nonsense!!), go to aat.groups.io :

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