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Locomotor Behaviour in Living and Fossil Pongids

Abstract

LEWIS has suggested1 that certain morphological features common to the wrist joints of living hominoids (and one fossil) were adaptations for arm swinging or brachiating behaviour and has indicated a common “brachiating” ancestry among the great apes and man. Lewis's descriptive anatomy is excellent; but we question his interpretation of hominoid locomotor evolution. The correlation between the intra-articular meniscus and brachiating abilities is not so apparent as Lewis suggests.

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CONROY, G., FLEAGLE, J. Locomotor Behaviour in Living and Fossil Pongids. Nature 237, 103–104 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1038/237103a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/237103a0

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