In December 2018, the scientific world was shocked by the news about the study of the skeleton of a prehistoric humanoid creature called "Littlefoot" and the scientific name of Australopithecus Prometheus.
According to many signs, it turned out that it was from him that the genus of people (Homo) originated, since Prometheus was much more "progressive" than other species of Australopithecus - he had longer legs and teeth that were badly worn out, as if he were a vegetarian.
Now anthropologists continue to study the bones of Littlefoot-Prometheus, and they will no doubt give us even more discoveries.
And the most recent showed that despite his long legs and upright posture, Littlefoot actually walked like a chimpanzee, not like people.
Littfoot seemed to often walk on two legs, but he also enjoyed spending time in the trees.
Littlefoot's skeleton belonged to an elderly woman with a severely crippled arm, whose height barely reached 120 cm and who lived about 3.6 million years ago. These remains were discovered in 1994 in Sterkfontein Caves near Johannesburg (South Africa).
Scientists made information about her gait when they scanned Littlefoot's skull and especially the area of the inner ear, in which there are special bones and a cochlea, which are responsible for balance during movement.
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Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand also found that Littlefoot's "bony labyrinth" of the inner ear differs significantly from other early human species.
Littlefoot's skull scans were compared to 17 early hominin specimens, which included 10 human species and 10 chimpanzees.
Littlefoot's inner ear canals look remarkably similar to those of a common chimpanzee, scientists say.
Thus, looking at the gait of a chimpanzee, one can probably very accurately imagine how our ancestor moved.
A group of wandering chimpanzees.