Question

1. I'd like you to first explain to me what Lieberman proposes our common ancestor with chimpanzees (LCA) would look/behave like. Please explain his reasoning and what fossil evidence there is to support it. (150 wds)

2. Next, please discuss the role of changing climate in our divergence from the chimpanzee line. Emphasize our ancestral diet and dentition. (150 wds).

Answer 1

Answer 1:)

Lieberman supported the last common ancestor with chimpanzees in many ways. The nonappearance of a well-defined plantar aponeurosis in potentially gibbons, orangutans, platyrrhines, and colobines suggests that a human-like group of the plantar aponeurosis developed in a convergent way in African apes and cercopithecines, probably as an adaptation to terrestrial locomotion. Meanwhile, early hominins such as Ardipithecus and Sahelanthropus (~7-3 mya) diverged from an LCA with chimpanzees; it is possible they had apelike eccrine gland masses. The evidence of aquatic faunivory by chimpanzees suggests the LCA would be approximately 6e8 Ma old. The LCA disbursed most of the day relaxing, with only rare, short bouts of energetic activity. The closest living equivalent for the LCA is possibly chimpanzees because these are around 50% stronger than humans. Liberman and the team also suggested that LCA possessed a great-ape-like foot, in together form and function. These situations support the argument that the last common ancestor (LCA) of humans and chimpanzees often engaged in terrestrial quadrupedalism.