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A Baboon on a Treadmill

A researcher studies a baboon on a treadmill to better understand the evolution of human locomotion.
A researcher studies a baboon on a treadmill to better understand the evolution of human locomotion. Image: Roberto García-Roa (CC BY 4.0)

Another image by García-Roa depicts a researcher observing how a baboon walks bipedally on a treadmill. Primates don’t always walk upright, but sometimes they do, and researchers believe the capacity could highlight how modern humans and our ancestors evolved to only move around on two feet. Research on fossils previously covered by Gizmodo has suggested that apes may have learned to be bipedal in the trees, not on the ground.