Australopithicus flamingus

I was proofing some copy for our Video Club at work the other day, written by my copywriting colleague Amy. One of the selections was a video called "Walking With Caveman", some sort of film about Australopithicus afarensis, which the copy said was the first of our primate ancestors "to stand on two legs". Ever the stickler for detail, I edited the copy to read "stand upright" instead, and wrote this comment in the margin: "Yes, prior to this, our ancestors stood on only one leg. Australopithicus flamingus, they were called."

I have to say, that image just cracked me up: a hairy, barely bipedal primate/humanoid, standing on one leg, holding the other one behind him, maybe hopping around, foraging for berries. Falling over.

Voice Over: Soon Australopithicus flamingus experimented with using both legs, and this innovation allowed them to hunt wild gameóprior to this, the only game they could hunt with any degree of success consisted of turtles and some very stunned species of quail. Of course, not only did this provide a much-needed source of protein to jump-start our brain development, it also freed both hands to use tools.

A little known stage of our evolutionary development. In fact, people to this day place flamingo idols on their front lawns in tribute to these pioneering ancestors.

Okay, so it was a slow day at work.