“Evidence Indicates Humans’ Early Tree-Dwelling Ancestors Were Also Bipedal”

Images show aerial and lateral images of (top to bottom) (A) a human footprint made walking normally with an extended knee and hip gait; (B) a human footprint made walking with bent-knees and hips to mimic a chimpanzee; and (C) a scan of a cast from the Laetoli fossil trackway. Notice that the toe is much deeper than the heel in the middle print and that the Laetoli scan looks more like the human print. (Credit: Randy Haas, University of Arizona)

Prabhupada, Philosophy Discussions: Related? Everything is related. That is another thing. But if the monkey’s body is developing into human body…

Syamasundara: Yes. Apelike man.

Prabhupada: Then after development of human body, why is the monkey species does not cease? Why not it does not cease?

Syamasundara: They are like branches of the same tree, he calls them.

Prabhupada: Branches of the tree, just like we see now the monkey is existing and human being is also existing. Similarly, we say what he sees the beginning of life, at that time also there was human being.

Laetoli Footprints Fully Modern Too Early

Creation Evolution Headlines, March 22, 2010 — Science Daily has reported a bombshell announcement from the University of Arizona School of Anthropology: the famous Laetoli footprints in Africa said to be 3.6 million years old are identical to modern human prints.

“Based on previous analyses of the skeletons of Australopithecus afarensis, we expected that the Laetoli footprints would resemble those of someone walking with a bent knee, bent hip gait typical of chimpanzees, and not the striding gait normally used by modern humans,” [David] Raichlen said.  “But to our surprise, the Laetoli footprints fall completely within the range of normal human footprints.”

They weren’t quite ready to abandon the human-evolution story, though.  Biological anthropologist Adam Gordon reassured readers that this unexpected detail still can fit the tale from chimp to man: “What is fascinating about this study is that it suggests that, at a time when our ancestors had an anatomy well-suited to spending a significant amount of time in the trees, they had already developed a highly efficient, modern human-like mode of bipedalism.”  They just saved up that evolutionary novelty for a couple of million years until they were ready , Gordon explained:

“The fossil record indicates that our ancestors did not make a full-time commitment to leaving the trees and walking on the ground until well over a million years after these (Laetoli) prints were made. The fact that partially tree-dwelling animals, like Lucy, had such a remarkably modern gait is a testament to the importance of energetic efficiency in moving around on two legs,” Gordon said.

That was a very deft sidestep from evolutionary theory to physics.  Maybe it was inherited from that time of full-time commitment.  The article tiptoed around the implications: “The fossil footprints at Laetoli preserve a remarkably even depth at the toe and heel, just like those of modern humans,” it said.  Right before Gordon did his sidestep, the article teased, “If the Laetoli footprints were made by Lucy’s species, as most scientists agree to be the case, these experimental results have interesting implications for the timing of evolutionary events.”
Science Daily swallowed Gordon’s quasi-Lamarckian explanation and sanctified it as scientific evidence: not just for a bipedal gait, but also the whole human evolution story: “Evidence Indicates Humans’ Early Tree-Dwelling Ancestors Were Also Bipedal.”

There you have it: another Precambrian Rabbit.  There you also have an incredibly stupid excuse to dodge the implications, with the science press regurgitating it without any critical analysis.  This stretches evolutionary paleoanthropology to the breaking point: a chimpanzee in the trees that could occasionally walk just like a man, but didn’t commit to it for two million years.  What a waste of anatomy.  They could have had marathons and door-to-door salesman long before we showed up.  If you believe their story after this embarrassing revelation (that we already have known for years, 03/12/2005, 07/20/2005, 02/03/2006, 01/10/2007, 03/02/2009), we have something to sell you: an autographed copy of Gullible’s Travails, signed by the author, Movealong Swiftly.  Climb down out of that Monkey Puzzle Tree and buy yours today!  Only $13,199.99 – limited time offer!