hominin bauplan
sesamoid bones
bipedal possible
knuckle walker not
you see on this
side of the tree
you have we
that side branches
with apes and
chimpanzees
woodland huckleberry
palm and figs
monkey kudu
and peafowl
savannas aren’t
what make
walkers upright
stands of trees
shrubs grasses
and filtered light
Note: This poem is written based on 11 papers published in the 2 October 2009 issue of Science. Authored by a diverse international team, the papers describe an early hominid species, Ardipithecus ramidus, and its environment. These 4.4 million year old hominid fossils sit within a critical early part of human evolution, and cast new and sometimes surprising light on the evolution of human limbs and locomotion, the habitats occupied by early hominids, and the nature of our last common ancestor with chimps.
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