Hominine evolution

[NJPharris@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/25/99 9:38:54 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
rtravsky@uwyo.edu writes:

> Depends on what you mean by "early".
>  
>  Australopithecus anamensis, with dates of 3.9 - 4.2 mya, is considered a
>  strong candiate for being the earliest bipedal hominid (based on a partial
>  tibia). A. afarensis, slightly younger, is firmly believed to be bipedal.
>  
>  And then there's morotopithecus (20mya) and oreopithecus (10mya).

How are these last two relevant to human evolution in particular?  I was 
under the impression that the lines leading to _Homo_ and _Pan_ (the two 
chimp species) only diverged around 5-10 Ma.

--Nick P.