An ancient human skeleton has scientists excited as it reveals human ancestors may have climbed.
The discovery is in the bones of the toes on DIK-1-1, a mostly complete 3.3 million-year-old skeleton of a toddler from the species Australopithecus afarensis, Live Science reports.
Nicknamed "Selam" the skeleton has one of the oldest and most complete foot bones ever found. It's the big toe that is most important though, appearing curved like a chimpanzee.
"It's human-like in not sticking out to the side, but it had much more mobility and could probably wiggle and grab on to stuff," said Jeremy DeSilva, a paleoanthropologist at Dartmouth College in New Hamphshire.
"Not [as well as] a chimp, but certainly more than a human could."
The curved toe could have had a variety of uses, but was likely most used for clinging to parents or hiding in trees late at night, just like a monkey.
"We also have fossils of very large predators," Dr DeSilva told Live Science. "I can't image how they would have survived if they didn't go into the trees at night."
However another scientist has poured cold water on the theory, saying the Australopithecus afarensis species was mostly ground based. Carol Ward from the University of Missouri wasn't involved in studying the foot, but has been working with Selam's spine and ribs.
"Even if a baby could have fit more things between its first and second toe, it would not have had the grasping capability like an ape," she said.
She later added based on the entire foot its clear Selam had evolved to walk on two feet and stay on the ground.
Dr DeSilva said regardless of whether the study conclusively proved whether the child had climbed it's still leading to better understanding of ancient humans.
"It opens up this window into what the life of a child 3 million years ago was like," he said.
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