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Study: Competition for food may have led ancestors to walk on two feet.
Walking upright is one of the key traits separating mankind from other primates, but the question remains: Why did this become the movement of choice for humans? New research on man’s closest living relative suggests the reason may have been to better compete—in this case, to cart-off more food when it may be in short supply.
In the study appearing last month in the journal Current Biology, an international team of scientists, including GW anthropology professor Brian Richmond, observed two groups of wild chimpanzees in western Africa’s Bossou Forest.
In one group of 11 chimps, researchers found that when a new, uncommon type of nut was added to the food supply, chimps were four times as likely to carry them off on two feet, and that the use of both hands enabled them to carry more than twice as much bounty.
The idea, according to the study, is that the new type of nut represented for the chimpanzees “a rare resource of unpredictable availability.” In other words, the chimps wanted to get while the getting was good.
Read more about this study and view renderings and video of the hall.
Fast Facts
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A hub of discovery and learning at GW.
State-of-the-art flexible learning and research space.
Eight-story building with two levels of below-ground program space.
Underground parking and ground floor retail space.
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Approved by the GW Board of Trustees in October 2010.
Construction will take place between 2011 and 2014.
Estimated cost is $275 million, to be funded primarily with lease payments from Square 54 (across from GW Hospital), indirect cost reimbursement from grants and contracts supporting faculty research, and philanthropic gifts from the GW community.
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