The living apes practice one of the most unique locomotor behaviors of any mammal: suspension and brachiation. The set of skeletal modifications that allow this bizarre locomotor mode lay the foundation for the even less common bipedalism of humans. But how did these suspensory adaptations originate and are they as distinctive as we think? A survey of behavioral studies and the the fossil record suggests not. One fossil taxon in particular is key to addressing the origins of suspensory locomotion, as it may represent the earliest know ape: Proconsul. Results from a phylogenetic analysis of 816 morphological characters indicates that Proconsul is a hominoid, while phenetic analyses suggest a locomotor mode incorporating a range of behaviors more similar to the locomotor style of new world monkeys than to either the living apes or their sister taxon, the old world monkeys.
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