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Summary Paper Sunset on the Savanna "Why do we walk? For decades anthropologists said that we became bipedal to survive on the African savanna. But a slew of new fossils have destroyed that appealing notion and left researchers groping for a new paradigm." Sunset on the Savanna, James Shreeve, Discover, July 1996, pp.116-125. It has generally been thought that it was the shift from life in the forest to life in an open habitat that …

…would be the final nail in the coffin of the savanna hypothesis...". There are lots enough fossils of the relevant bones to determine if this creature was bipedal; the problem however, is that these bones are all encased in sediment that has to be meticulously chipped away before the analysis of them can even begin. So, until this analysis can be made, although fiercely challenged, Shreeve tells us that the savanna theory cannot be disproven.