Response to Comment on "Origin of Human Bipedalism As an Adaptation for Locomotion on Flexible Branches"
R. H. Crompton1* and
S. K. S. Thorpe2
Begun et al. purport to present technical concerns regarding our case for an arboreal origin for terrestrial bipedalism in early hominins, but merely reiterate their knuckle-walking hypothesis, which lacks support from the fossil record and is highly unparsimonious. The technical concerns are refuted by published studies cited in our study and thus do not affect our original conclusions.
1 School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Liverpool, Ashton Street, Liverpool L69 3GE, UK.
2 School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rhcrompton{at}liv.ac.uk