Knuckle-walking is a form of quadrupedal walking in which the forelimbs hold the fingers in a partially flexed posture that allows body weight to press down on the ground through the knuckles. Gorillas and chimpanzees use this style of locomotion, as do anteaters and platypuses. Knuckle-walking helps with actions other than locomotion on the ground. Gorillas use fingers for the manipulation of food, whereas chimpanzees use fingers for the manipulation of food and climbing. In anteaters and pangolins, the fingers have large claws for opening the mounds of social insects. Platypus fingers have webbing that extends past the fingers which aids in swimming, thus knuckle-walking is used to prevent stumbling. Gorillas move around by knuckle-walking, although they sometimes walk bipedally for short distances while carrying food or in defensive situations. Mountain gorillas use knuckle-walking plus other parts of their hand—fist-walking does not use the knuckles, using the backs of their hand, and using their palms. Anthropologists once thought that the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans engaged in knuckle-walking, and humans evolved upright walking from knuckle-walking, a view thought to be supported by reanalysis of overlooked features on hominid fossils. Since then, scientists discovered Ardipithecus ramidus, a human-like hominid descended from the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans. Ar. ramidus engaged in upright walking, but not knuckle-walking. This leads to the conclusion that chimpanzees evolved knuckle-walking after they split from humans six million years ago, and humans evolved upright walking without knuckle-walking. This would imply that knuckle-walking evolved independently in the African great apes, which would mean a homoplasic (independent) evolution of this locomotor behaviour in gorillas and chimpanzees. However, other studies have argued the opposite by pointing out that the differences in knuckle-walking between gorillas and chimpanzees can be explained by differences in positional behaviour, kinematics, and the biomechanics of weight-bearing.
Apes Chimpanzees and gorillas engage in knuckle-walking. This form of hand-walking posture allows these tree-climbers to use their hands for terrestrial locomotion while retaining long fingers for gripping and climbing. It may also allow small objects to be carried in the fingers while walking on all fours. This is the most common type of movement for gorillas, although they also practice bipedalism. Their knuckle-walking involves flexing the tips of their fingers and carrying their body weight down on the dorsal surface of their middle phalanges. The outer fingers are held clear off the ground. The wrist is held in a stable, locked position during the support phase of knuckle-walking by means of strongly flexed interphalangeal joints, and extended metacarpophalangeal joints. The palm, as a result, is positioned perpendicular to the ground and in line with the forearm. The wrist and elbow are extended throughout the last period in which the knuckle-walker's hand carried body weight. Differences exist between knuckle-walking in chimpanzees and gorillas; juvenile chimpanzees engage in less knuckle-walking than juvenile gorillas. Another difference is that the hand bones of gorillas lack key features that were once thought to limit the extension of the wrist during knuckle-walking in chimpanzees. For example, the ridges and concavities features of the capitate and hamate bones have been interpreted to enhance stability of weight-bearing; on this basis, they have been used to identify knuckle-walking in fossils. These are found in all chimpanzees, but in only two out of five gorillas. They are also less prominent when found in gorillas. They are, however, found in primates that do not knuckle-walk. Chimpanzee knuckle-walking and gorilla knuckle-walking have been suggested to be biomechanically and posturally distinct. Gorillas use a form of knuckle-walking that is "columnar". In this forelimb posture, the hand and wrist joints are aligned in a relatively straight, neutral posture. In contrast, chimpanzees use an extended wrist posture. These differences underlie the different characteristics of their hand bones. The difference has been attributed to the greater locomotion of chimpanzees in trees, compared to gorillas. The former frequently engage in both knuckle-walking and palm-walking branches. As a result, to preserve their balance in trees, chimpanzees, like other primates in trees, often extended their wrists. This need has produced different wrist bone anatomy, and through this, a different form of knuckle-walking. Knuckle-walking has been reported in some baboons. Fossils attributed to Australopithecus anamensis and Au. afarensis also may have had specialized wrist morphology that was retained from an earlier knuckle-walking ancestor.
Gorillas Gorillas use the form of walking on all fours with the fingers on the hands of the front two limbs folded inward. A gorilla's forearm and wrist bones lock together to be able to sustain the weight of the animal and create a strong supporting structure. Gorillas use this form of walking because their hips are attached differently from humans, so standing on two legs for a long period of time would eventually become painful. Gorillas sometimes do walk upright in instances where dangers are present.
Other mammals
Giant anteaters and platypuses are also knuckle-walkers. Pangolins also sometimes walk on their knuckles. Some members of the extinct ungulate family Chalicotheriidae with gorilla-like forelimbs are suggested to have knuckle-walked. Some ground sloths may have also walked on their knuckles.
Reptiles A quadrupedal or even knuckle-walking posture has been proposed for the theropod dinosaur Spinosaurus aegyptiacus based on reconstructions by Ibrahim. These studies described Spinosaurus as having unusually short hind limbs and a forward-shifted center of mass, which they suggested would have made habitual bipedal locomotion difficult and may have required the animal to walk on all fours on land. However, this interpretation has been widely questioned. Most scientists propose that Spinosaurus was probably a bipedal animal and was probably not a quadrupedal knuckle-walker.
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