The ancestors of humankind learned to stand from trees

Observing the orangutans helps to understand human development. According to British researchers from Birmingham and Liverpool Universities, human ancestors learned to stand on two feet from the tree rather than from the ground as previously assumed.

Study primate Susannah Torpe, Roger Holder and Robin Crompton made this assumption after analyzing the behavior of orangutans on the island of Sumatra in I ndonesia. They claim that this large monkey almost lives on trees and moves in three ways.

When on horizontal branches, they walk on 4 feet. When reaching medium-sized branches, they use their hands to lean on them, even to cling and swing on trees. However, when they met the long, thin and soft branches at the top of the canopy, they stood up and clasped a pair of branches and balanced themselves with their arms spread out before grasping the branches on their heads. In this position, they walk and move from branch to tree, because the orangutans are so heavy that they cannot dance like small monkeys. Thanks to that, the orangutans practiced walking with the help of their hands.

The researchers confirmed that the first human species used this technique while on the tree before going to the ground and began walking on two feet.

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