"Scientists have hotly debated whether or not O. tugenensis was an upright-walking human ancestor or an ape, since bipedalism—or walking on two legs—is often considered a first fundamental step in human evolution. "

but humans are apes

dont tell that to people, they get mad

oh that's pretty cool!

i am mad

god created us all in the image of the llama

all hail the hyponllama!

Humans are Hominidae, a family of primates that also encompases the great and lesser apes. humans are found in the Homo genus while the chimpanzie, our closest relative, is part of the pan genus.

i belive the point is that they mark the seperation of the homo genus and the pan genus from the hominini tribe by the trait of up right walking.

the point they are trying to make is they are scared of stupid religious people that will throw fits if you say humans are an ape species.

they should of worded it like

"Scientists have hotly debated whether or not O. tugenensis was an upright-walking human ancestor or another ape species, since bipedalism—or walking on two legs—is often considered a first fundamental step in human evolution. "

humans are not an ape species, so that wouldnt make sense.

id imagine that inteligent biology scientists that understand evolution would be just as pissed by some one calling a human an ape as a religious person would be.

though they could have said something like another Primate species or Hominidae species, and that would be fine.

This post was edited by Ylem122 on Jul 13 2012 03:15am

using ape as a generalized term which includes humans is perfectly fine. afterall hominidae are almost always referred to as great apes.

its not even close to as wrong as saying humans aren't in any form related to other apes.

looking over everything, this seems to be more an argument of semantics, some biologists use the word ape to represent all members of the hominidae cept humans and some use it to represent all members of the hominidae thus making it synomous with hominoid.

the main point i was attempting to make is that alot of people classify the lesser apes, the greater apes, and humans into 3 seperate group with the lesser and greater apes being there because their feet are more for grabbing then walking, the live in more of a forest enviroment, fruits and nuts are a very large part of their diet, and they tend to walk bent over using their hands.

if thats not how you classify hominidae, what ever.

as this is a matter of whos definiton to accept, it is a fruitless argument.

Peace.

This post was edited by Ylem122 on Jul 13 2012 03:45am