Bones of ape living 12m years ago point to genesis of upright walking

Bavarian fossils of likely common ancestor of humans and apes 'put back start of bipedalism by millions of years'

The distinctive human habit of walking upright may have evolved millions of years earlier than thought, according to researchers who uncovered the remains of an ancient ape in southern Germany.

Excavations from the Hammerschmiede clay pit in Bavaria turned up fossilised bones belonging to a previously unknown baboon-sized ape that lived nearly 12m years ago, long before humans split from their modern-day cousins, the chimpanzees and bonobos.