The experiment revealed that 8 per cent of people have some mid-foot flexibility, rather like Chimpanzee feet.īrief Communication: A Mid-Tarsal Break in the Human Foot Another group of researches, Vivek Venkataraman, Thomas Kraft and Nathaniel Dominy, at Dartmouth focused on a tree climbing community in Uganda where the villagers are able to climb trees almost exactly like chimpanzees. Human legs angle in from the hip to the knee allowing our feet to fall directly under the pelvis and our pelvic muscles are much stronger as well, allowing for a stable upright environment.Ĭhimpanzee legs are set wide apart and weak pelvic muscles force their whole body to transfer weight from side to side during each step.Ī recent study by Jeremy DeSilva and Simone Gill at Boston University, asked 400 adults to walk barefoot around the Boston Museum of Science while they filmed their feet. So while chimp feet and bodies can’t do what humans can, I think it shouldn’t be a problem for our feet to work like Chimpanzee feet. We refer to Chimpanzees as knuckle-walkers because they can only walk on two legs for short distances due to differences in the design of our legs and spine.Ĭhimps cannot straighten their legs like humans and they don’t have a lumbar curve which makes weight-bearing and walking much more difficult. If the foot doesn’t actually do this it is a flaw of function rather than design. The human foot is a spring arch that should be able to drop and lift with every step. The arches of human feet are both rigid and pliable depending on need. The three-arch system of the human foot is not found in Chimpanzee feet. Left to my own devices I can easily get lost in there.Ĭhimpanzee feet are quite different from human feet and there is much to be gleaned from the difference.Ĭonventional wisdom has always claimed that the human mid-foot is rigid, which allows more efficient walking while chimpanzees and other apes have flexible feet better suited to grasping branches as they move through the trees. Some species of primates are herbivores, some are insectivores, some are carnivores, and some are omnivores.Chimpanzee feet are amazing to explore if you are interested in how humans walk, and two recent studies have shed interesting new light on our similarities and differences depending on how you interpret them.Īs I mentioned in last Saturday’s post my daughter Ida and I recently spent time in The Hall of Human Origins At The American Museum Of Natural History. Most species of primate live in social groups and are very vocal. Most species of primates have very good eyesight and some species can see color. Of the brain that controls the sense of smell is smaller compared to other regions of the brain. Most primates don't have as good a sense of smell as other mammals because the olfactory region Primates have large brains compared to their body size, and primates are very intelligent. Most primate can hold their bodies erect and some species, including humans, can walk on two legs instead of four. Primates have flexible shoulder joints and and strong clavicles or collar bones that help them use their arms more effectively than other species of animals. Opposable thumbs make holding and manipulating objects easier! That means they can cross their thumb over to the opposite side of their hand and can touch their thumb to their fingers. Humans have hands designed for grasping, but not feet! Humans have opposable thumbs. The hands and feet of all primates, except for humans, are designed for grasping. Most species have fingernails instead of claws and they have touch-sensitive pads on each of their digits. Primates have five fingers on their hand and five toes on their feet. Primates range in size from the tiny pygmy marmoset that weighs less than 3 ounces to the large mountain gorilla that weighs close to 400 pounds.Most species of primates are found in subtropical or tropical forests and many species live in trees. There are about 233 species in this order.
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