Bipedalism in apes: a plesiomorphic trait?

i'll look it over, but i see one startling flaw:chimpanzees are capable of walking upright. that's oliver the chimp, who had such a tendency to do so that people called him a "humanzee." (genetic tests confirmed that he was entirely chimp, btw).what's even more truly bizarre is that i'm pretty sure that chimps are better at bipedal locomotion that we are. after all, they don't have pass giant-headed freak babies through their hips. we do.

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i had heard they expend less energy walking fully erect than we do, not having to swing wide hips back and forth. maybe i've got that backwards, though. the point about the toe does make sense, too. as an interesting aside, oliver is no longer bipedal in his old age.

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well, yes. we're more evolved with bipedalism in mind, whereas they are not. it's actually somewhat easy to see the process by which greater adaptations for erect bipedalism would evolve for states very similar to modern apes. i was thinking of bringing them up. iirc, they are actually slightly anatomically different in terms of ligaments and joints -- but mostly as a result (not the cause) of their quadrapedalism. it's sort of odd to think of bipedalism as at least partly developmental.

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