Part 6/15:
Set Apart from Modern Apes: The skeleton shows that it was quite different from the modern African apes such as chimpanzees and gorillas. It did not exhibit the knuckle-walking adaptations typical of many apes, indicating that bipedalism was fundamental early in human evolution.
Anatomical Surprises: Its proportions—longer legs than arms—defy the long-held idea that early ancestors were primarily tree-dwellers with short legs. Ardipithecus appears to be a transitional creature, comfortable both on the ground and in the trees.