Which apes are knuckle walkers

But not all paleoanthropologists are convinced that humans' wrists and forearms indicate knuckle-walking. Kivell and others suggest that the so-called knuckle-walking features that humans have are not related to knuckle-walking at all. Kivell and Daniel Schmitt, also a paleoanthropologist at Duke University, looked at seven anatomical features of the wrist that have been associated with knuckle-walking in more than bonobo, chimpanzee and gorilla bones.

Instead, they found that although chimpanzees and bonobos have all of the pre-defined knuckle-walking anatomical features, gorillas do not. In addition, the pair also studied wrist bones of non-knuckle-walking monkeys, and found that monkeys such as baboons and macaques have some of the features previously associated with knuckle-walking as well. This led Kivell and Schmitt to conclude that these features might not be related to knuckle-walking adaptations.

The researchers examined how the different African apes move. African apes, they realized, employ two different types of knuckle-walking: One is used by chimpanzees and bonobos, the other by gorillas. The differences are probably due to differences in the animals' lifestyles, Kivell says. The focus of his research is the evolution of human walking. Latimer was joined in the research with C.

For more information, contact Colin McEwen at colin. Editorial Guidelines Submit to the Daily. Anat Rec, , Keywords: African apes; eccentric contraction; knuckle-walking; negative work. Abstract Among living mammals, only the African apes and some anteaters adopt knuckle-walking as their primary locomotor behavior.