Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Matters Arising
  • Published:

Reevaluating bipedalism in Danuvius

Nature volume 586, pages E1–E3 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

Matters Arising to this article was published on 30 September 2020

The Original Article was published on 06 November 2019

arising from M. Böhme et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1731-0 (2019)

Danuvius guggenmosi is a species of Miocene hominoid from the 11.62-million-year-old site of Hammerschmiede. On the basis of interpretations of its vertebrae and limbs, Böhme and colleagues1 infer that Danuvius exhibited ‘joint positions and loading patterns of both hominin bipedalism that emphasize hindlimb extension and spinal curvatures, and extant great ape suspension’. Although we agree that Danuvius was suspensory, we find the functional interpretation of bipedalism to be unfounded on morphological grounds. We therefore call into question the evolutionary scenario for the origin of hominin bipedalism proposed by Böhme and colleagues.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Lower thoracic vertebra of Danuvius (GPIT/MA/10000-16) in comparative context.
Fig. 2: Evolution of vertebral formulae in anthropoids.

Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analysed in this article are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

References

  1. Böhme, M. et al. A new Miocene ape and locomotion in the ancestor of great apes and humans. Nature 575, 489–493 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Latimer, B. & Ward, C. in The Nariokotome Homo erectus Skeleton (eds. Walker, A. & Leakey, R.) 266–293 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993).

  3. Williams, S. A., Gómez-Olivencia, A. & Pilbeam, D. R. in Spinal Evolution (eds Been, E. et al.) 97–124 (Springer, 2019).

  4. Johnson, S. E. & Shapiro, L. J. Positional behavior and vertebral morphology in atelines and cebines. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 105, 333–354 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Nakatsukasa, M. in Spinal Evolution (eds. Been, E. et al.) 73–96 (Springer, 2019).

  6. Hammond, A. S. et al. Insights into the lower torso in late Miocene hominoid Oreopithecus bambolii. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 278–284 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Katsavrias, E., Primetis, E. & Karandreas, N. Iliopsoas: a new electromyographic technique and normal motor unit action potential values. Clin. Neurophysiol. 116, 2528–2532 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Lovejoy, C. O., Heiple, K. G. & Burstein, A. H. The gait of Australopithecus. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 38, 757–779 (1973).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Pina, M., Almécija, S., Alba, D. M., O’Neill, M. C. & Moyà-Solà, S. The Middle Miocene ape Pierolapithecus catalaunicus exhibits extant great ape-like morphometric affinities on its patella: inferences on knee function and evolution. PLoS ONE 9, e91944 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Ward, C. V. et al. Functional morphology of Proconsul patellas from Rusinga Island, Kenya, with implications for other Miocene-Pliocene catarrhines. J. Hum. Evol. 29, 1–19 (1995).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Schmitz, R. J., Harrison, D., Wang, H.-M. & Shultz, S. J. Sagittal-plane knee moment during gait and knee cartilage thickness. J. Athl. Train. 52, 560–566 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. DeSilva, J. M. Functional morphology of the ankle and the likelihood of climbing in early hominins. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 6567–6572 (2009).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Pilbeam, D. R., Rose, M. D., Badgley, C. & Lipschultz, B. Miocene hominoids from Pakistan. Postilla 181, 1–94 (1980).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Pilbeam, D. R. & Lieberman, D. E. in Chimpanzees and Human Evolution (eds Muller, M. N. et al.) 22–141 (Harvard Univ. Press, 2017).

  15. Prang, T. C. The African ape-like foot of Ardipithecus ramidus and its implications for the origin of bipedalism. eLife 8, e44433 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for the Study of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Scott A. Williams

  2. Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Thomas C. Prang

  3. Department of Anthropology, Chaffey College, Rancho Cucamonga, CA, USA

    Marc R. Meyer

  4. Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    Gabrielle A. Russo

  5. Department of Anthropology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Liza J. Shapiro

Authors
  1. Scott A. Williams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Thomas C. Prang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Marc R. Meyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Gabrielle A. Russo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Liza J. Shapiro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors performed and contributed to interpretation of analyses and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Scott A. Williams.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Williams, S.A., Prang, T.C., Meyer, M.R. et al. Reevaluating bipedalism in Danuvius. Nature 586, E1–E3 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2736-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2736-4

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing