The mechanisms of the human foot have much more in common with the flexible feet of other great apes, according to a research published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B on Wednesday.

Earlier research in the 1930s proposes that, human feet function very differently to those of other apes, due to the development of arches in the mid-foot region (medial arches) and the supposed rigidity of the arches on the outside edge of the foot (lateral arches).

In this new study, researchers at the University of Liverpool analyzed more than 25,000 human steps, which were made on a pressure-sensitive treadmill.

The researchers have shown that despite having abandoned life in the trees long ago, our feet have retained a surprising amount of flexibility, the type seen in the feet of other great apes, such as orang-utans and chimpanzees, which have remained largely tree-dwelling.

"We found that the range of pressures exerted under the human mid-foot, and thus the internal mechanisms that drive them, were highly variable, so much so that they actually overlapped with those made by the great apes." explains Professor Robin Crompton, one of the authors of the study.