Millions of years ago, a simian ancestor of humanity decided to climb a tree.
It may have been looking for a meal, escaping a predator or seeking a shady place to rest.
Later, like anyone who has ascended high into a forest’s canopy, our relative discovered that getting down in one piece is less simple than it seems.
Any human can relate to this, like climbing up a fireman’s pole, for example, is challenging,” said Nathaniel Dominy, an evolutionary biologist at Dartmouth.
The researchers posit that this adaptation persisted even as early humans swapped out trees for grassland habitats, their versatile upper limbs now making it possible to forage, hunt and defend.
Persons:
”, Nathaniel Dominy, “, Dominy
Organizations:
Dartmouth, Royal Society Open Science