The DOI matches its Crossref record; 20 of the 20 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Origin of Human Bipedalism As an Adaptation for Locomotion on Flexible Branches
Abstract
Human bipedalism is commonly thought to have evolved from a quadrupedal terrestrial precursor, yet some recent paleontological evidence suggests that adaptations for bipedalism arose in an arboreal context. However, the adaptive benefit of arboreal bipedalism has been unknown. Here we show that it allows the most arboreal great ape, the orangutan, to access supports too flexible to be negotiated otherwise. Orangutans react to branch flexibility like humans running on springy tracks, by increasing knee and hip extension, whereas all other primatesdothe reverse. Human bipedalism is thus less an innovation than an exploitation of a locomotor behavior retained from the common great ape ancestor.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Genetic evidence for complex speciation of humans and chimpanzees
Patterson, N., Richter, D. J., Gnerre, S., Lander, E. S., & Reich, D. (2006) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature04789 · Cited by 581
Late Miocene hominids from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia
Haile-Selassie, Y. (2001) · Nature · doi:10.1038/35084063 · Cited by 479
Standardized descriptions of primate locomotor and postural modes
Hunt, K. D., Cant, J. G. H., Gebo, D. L., Rose, M. D., Walker, S. E., & Youlatos, D. (1996) · Primates · doi:10.1007/bf02381373 · Cited by 429
Interpreting the posture and locomotion ofAustralopithecus afarensis: Where do we stand?
Ward, C. V. (2002) · American Journal of Physical Anthropology · doi:10.1002/ajpa.10185 · Cited by 364
Wrangham, R. W., Conklin-Brittain, N. L., & Hunt, K. D. (1998) · International Journal of Primatology · doi:10.1023/a:1020318102257 · Cited by 340
Virtual cranial reconstruction of Sahelanthropus tchadensis
Zollikofer, C. P. E., Ponce de León, M. S., Lieberman, D. E., Guy, F., Pilbeam, D., Likius, A., Mackaye, H. T., Vignaud, P., & Brunet, M. (2005) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature03397 · Cited by 327
The lorisiform wrist joint and the evolution of “brachiating” adaptations in the hominoidea
Cartmill, M., & Milton, K. (1977) · American Journal of Physical Anthropology · doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330470206 · Cited by 309
Asa Issie, Aramis and the origin of Australopithecus
White, T. D., WoldeGabriel, G., Asfaw, B., Ambrose, S., Beyene, Y., Bernor, R. L., Boisserie, J.-R., Currie, B., Gilbert, H., Haile-Selassie, Y., et al. (2006) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature04629 · Cited by 288
The evolution of human bipedality: ecology and functional morphology
Hunt, K. D. (1994) · Journal of Human Evolution · doi:10.1006/jhev.1994.1011 · Cited by 288
Orangutan positional behavior and the nature of arboreal locomotion in Hominoidea
Thorpe, S. K. S., & Crompton, R. H. (2006) · American Journal of Physical Anthropology · doi:10.1002/ajpa.20422 · Cited by 281
Self-citation
Cited by
Hominin life history: reconstruction and evolution
Robson, S. L., & Wood, B. (2008) · Journal of Anatomy · doi:10.1111/j.1469-7580.2008.00867.x · Cited by 374
Primate Vocalization, Gesture, and the Evolution of Human Language
Arbib, M. A., Liebal, K., & Pika, S. (2008) · Current Anthropology · doi:10.1086/593015 · Cited by 346
Orrorin tugenensis Femoral Morphology and the Evolution of Hominin Bipedalism
Richmond, B. G., & Jungers, W. L. (2008) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1154197 · Cited by 276
The evolution of the upright posture and gait – a review and a new synthesis.
Niemitz, C. (2010) · Naturwissenschaften · doi:10.1007/s00114-009-0637-3 · Cited by 128
Muscle force production during bent-knee, bent-hip walking in humans
Foster, A. D., Raichlen, D. A., & Pontzer, H. (2013) · Journal of Human Evolution · doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.06.012 · Cited by 35
Metadata
- Authors
- Thorpe, S. K. S., Holder, R. L., & Crompton, R. H.
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2007-06
- Volume
- 316
- Issue
- 5829
- Pages
- 1328-1331
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W2130288220
- Cited by
- 326
- References
- 20
- FWCI
- 24.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Origin of Human Bipedalism As an Adaptation for Locomotion on Flexible Branches. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1126/science.1140799
- The paper
- Thorpe, S. K. S., Holder, R. L., & Crompton, R. H. (2007). Origin of Human Bipedalism As an Adaptation for Locomotion on Flexible Branches. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1140799
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
