The Role of Savannahs in Human Evolution

It now appears that grassland savannahs stretched further than originally thought during the critical time when human precursors became bipedal. As the Gence France Presse reports:

"There have been open habitats for all of the last six million years in the environments in eastern Africa where some of the most significant early human fossils were found," said Thure Cerling, a professor at the University of Utah and lead researcher of the study.

"Wherever we find human ancestors, we find evidence for open habitats similar to savannahs - much more open and savannah-like than forested," he said in a statement.

It still remains to be explained how Ardipithecus developed a bipedal gait within a forest environment, though.