It is also the birthplace of man. Back in the Miocene the fauna was made up of the now extinct ancestors of these animals including the sabre-toothed tigers, mammoths and swine and also several species of monkeys and apes, never backward at seeing new ways to make a living. Among the ground-adapting primates was a group of apes who were the common ancestors of the living great apes and the hominidae. The great apes differ from monekys in several ways. Their short, sturdy legs are pre-adapted to walking and their arms are freely hinged at the shoulder and suited to reaching and carrying.
Spines are stout and stiff, contrasting with the slender, springy spines of quadrupedal monkeys.
Their internal organs are hitched to the chest, suspended from above to the pelvis, instead of hanging down from the backbone as in monkeys. The coccyx,-remnant of the tail, bends forward to support the pelvic contents in the upright position. So, as the curtain went up on this new environment the anthropoid ancestors of man literally walked on the stage. But bipedalsim while it frees the arms and hands for carrying and fabricating, exacts what would seem to be a heavy price. If walking and running are to be efficient means of getting about, the spread of the pelvis must not be too great, else a duck waddle results.