Fossil hominin shoulders support an African ape-like last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees.

ABSTRACT: Reconstructing the behavioral shifts that drove hominin evolution requires knowledge of the timing, magnitude, and direction of anatomical changes over the past ∼6-7 million years. These reconstructions depend on assumptions regarding the morphotype of the Homo-Pan last common ancestor (LCA). However, there is little consensus for the LCA, with proposed models ranging from African ape to orangutan or generalized Miocene ape-like. The ancestral state of the shoulder is of particular interest because it is functionally associated with important behavioral shifts in hominins, such as reduced arboreality, high-speed throwing, and tool use. However, previous morphometric analyses of both living and fossil taxa have yielded contradictory results. Here, we generated a 3D morphospace of ape and hu

SUBMITTER: Young NM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4586873 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature