Apes' Upright Posture and Habitat Discovered to be Older Than Previously Thought
Two new studies led by the University of Minnesota have found that early apes lived in a wide variety of habitats, including open habitats like scrublands and wooded grasslands, that existed 10 million years earlier than previously known. The findings suggest that modern ape anatomy may have evolved in open woodlands among leaf-eating apes rather than in forest-dwelling fruit-eating apes. The research has led to a new framework for future studies regarding ape evolutionary origins.