A research team led by Carol Ward, from the University of Missouri, analysed the pelvis of the ape-likeRudapithecus. The team discovered that the pelvis was more similar to that of a human than previous discoveries. Human bipedalism, or the ability to walk on two legs, could be much more deeply ingrained in our ancestors than we once thought.

Discovered by a professor an anthropology at the University of Toronto, David Begun, the ape that was found inRudabnya, Hungary, was surprisingly a relative of the modern African ape.

Rudapithecus was pretty ape-like and probably moved among branches like apes do now holding its body upright and climbing with its arms, said Ward, a Curators Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences in the MU School of Medicine and lead author on the study. However, it would have differed from modern great apes by having a more flexible lower back, which would mean when Rudapithecus came down to the ground, it might have had the ability to stand upright more like humans do. This evidence supports the idea that rather than asking why human ancestors stood up from all fours, perhaps we should be asking why our ancestors never dropped down on all fours in the first place.

Due the their long pelvises and short lower backs, apes often walk on all fours when they walk on the ground. However, Ward believes that great evolutionary steps would have been taken if we were to have evolved from apes. Ward believes that human evolution from theRudapithecuswould have been far more likely.

We were able to determine that Rudapithecus would have had a more flexible torso than todays African apes because it was much smaller only about the size of a medium dog, Ward said. This is significant because our finding supports the idea suggested by other evidence that human ancestors might not have been built quite like modern African apes.

Link:

10M year old fossilised ape gives new view of evolution - SciTech Europa