Bipedalism in apes: a plesiomorphic trait?

Unfortunately, though, chimps are not bipedal, and they are actually worse at it than we are.

quote:

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The bones of human legs have a somewhat knock-kneed appearance, with the femur pointing inward toward the knee joint at the valgus angle. This allows human beings to easily transfer the center of gravity directly over the foot in the course of bipedal walking. Ape femurs [which includes chimpanzees] do not angle inward in this manner, so apes waddle when they try to walk bipedally.
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Finally, the great toe of the ape foot diverges like a thumb from the rest of the digits, a feature that allows apes to use their feet for grasping but inhibits their ability to use this tow for the "push-off" so important for effective bipedalism.

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Human/Ape: There is a slew of other characteristics that make chimpanzees unsuited to habitual bipedalism, from skull structure to pelvic shape; and save for those strange little primates like Oliver, bipedalism's never been the preferred way to go.Jon
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Robert H. Lavenda & Emily A. Schultz, Anthropology: What does it mean to be human? 117
amonline.net.au

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In considering the Origin of Species, it is quite conceivable that a naturalist... might come to the conclusion that each species had not been independently created, but had descended, like varieties, from other species. - Charles Darwin On the Origin of Species
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _En el mundo hay multitud de idiomas, y cada uno tiene su propio significado. - I Corintios 14:10
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _A devout people with its back to the wall can be pushed deeper and deeper into hardening religious nativism, in the end even preferring national suicide to religious compromise. - Colin Wells Sailing from Byzantium