SCIENCE
Fossil feet may be misleading scientists about human evolution
ScienceDailyMonday, August 31, 2026 at 12:38 PM
RedScroll Brief

Wild monkeys in West Africa can climb vertical tree trunks using foot flexibility scientists did not realize they possessed. The discovery challenges a key assumption about what the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees looked like and how it moved.
RedScroll Signal
- Impact
- High
- Category
- Science
- Regions
- Africa
- Market relevance
- None
- Why it matters
- Scientific signal separates durable discovery from noise — and often foreshadows policy and product. Wild monkeys in West Africa can climb vertical tree trunks using foot flexibility scientists did not realize they possessed. The discovery challenges a key assumption about what the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees looked like and how it moved.
Desk copy
RedScroll Briefing
Extractive editorial brief — not a reprint of the original
What happened
Wild monkeys in West Africa can climb vertical tree trunks using foot flexibility scientists did not realize they possessed. The discovery challenges a key assumption about what the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees looked like and how it moved.
Why it matters
Scientific signal separates durable discovery from noise — and often foreshadows policy and product.
Background
ScienceDaily reported on this under science. RedScroll surfaces the signal with an extractive brief — not a reprint of the original article. Read the source for full reporting.
Timeline
ScienceDaily published: Fossil feet may be misleading scientists about human evolution
Story is in today’s RedScroll edition. Follow the original source for updates.
More on
Related stories
- Scientists challenge a 70-year-old “lizard brain” myth
ScienceDailySCIENCE
- Scientists find why the liver may not heal even after you stop drinking
ScienceDailySCIENCE
- Scientists discover diamonds can generate electricity
ScienceDailySCIENCE
- 1.4-million-year-old footprints reveal a surprisingly large human relative
ScienceDailySCIENCE
- The leap second is dead. Long live the leap hour?
NatureSCIENCE
- Order from disorder: do we need a new law of physics?
NatureSCIENCE
Source
ScienceDaily
Original reporting by ScienceDaily. RedScroll provides an extractive briefing only.