Rare 10 million-year-old fossil unearths new view of human evolution

Scientist discovered a 10-million-year-old fossil near an old mining town in Rudabanya (Hungary) that gave an insight to one of the key aspects in human evolution: the origin of bipedalism . It was nothing less than a piece of the pelvis belonging to Rudapithecus, a relative of modern African apes and humans.

Previous research on Rudapithecus´ bones, jaws and limbs demonstrated its connection with modern humans, something which was not expected since it was located in Europe. Nonetheless, we had little information regarding its posture and locomotion so far, that is why the discovery of its pelvis has been so remarkable.

Photofit image of Rudapithecus species

Rudapithecus was very similar to a monkey and probably moved around through branches in a similar way to modern apes, holding its body in a vertical position and using their arms to climb. Despite these similarities, their lower back was more flexible, unlike those of modern great apes. This meant that when Rudapithecus fell from the tree into the ground could have had the ability to stand upright more like humans do.

Pelvis of a Rudapithecus

Modern african apes are animals of great constitution with a low pelvis and a short lower back. As a result, they normally tend to walk in fourths. Humans on the other hand, have longer and flexible lower backs that allow them to stand upright and walk efficiently on two legs. If this distinctive bipedalism of human species had the origin in an african ape, drastic changes in morphology would have been required (such as the lengthening of the lower back and the shortening of the pelvis). Whereas if an ancestor more alike to Rudapithecus was considered, this transition would have been much more straightforward.

All in all, the discovery of Rudapithecus pelvis suggests that human ancestors might not have been built like modern African apes. Further research on other fossilized body-parts of Rudapithecus needs to be done in order to provide a major insight on this topic.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190917160130.htm

Article mentioned: Ward, C.V et al., A late Miocene hominid partial pelvis from Hungary, Journal of Human Evolution, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.102645