Baby Steps Learning To Walk The Hominid Way Analysis

In the short story Walk Well, My Brother the author, Farley Mowat, develops the idea that a significant experience can lead to a change in how one individual views another individual. The story shows us how a person can learn from another person that is very different from them and be moved by their selflessness into becoming a better person. It also shows us how important it is for people not to judge others for superficial reasons.

When Doodle is first born and after about three years he is being taught how to walk like normal people walk and his brother is not to thrilled about it he is just doing it because he does not want to drag him around and be dead weight so he does this so he does not have to deal with him as much.

We share almost 99 percent of our genetic material with chimpanzees. Yet we have several traits that are very different. Two legged walking, or bipedalism seems to be one of the earliest of the major hominine characteristics to have evolved. To

I have to assume that the skulls that were closest to walking on four legs lived in environments with a lot of trees and high grounds. That being said, now I have to assume that our ancestors eventually found it easier to live in long plains and migrated which made them lose the need to be efficient on all fours, thus leading to bipedalism.

The Australopithecine are some of the earliest known hominids and they embody many characteristics that are associated with bipedalism. Bipedalism is a highly specialized and unusual form of primate locomotion that sets modern humans apart from all other living primates as we are the only extant obligate bipeds. Many evolutionary biologists and paleoanthropologists have devoted innumerable research hours to attempting to understand this unique form of locomotion and how it evolved. A number of interdependent morphological adaptations occurred over a long period of time to solve challenges posed by habitual bipedalism. As a result, there are obvious differences that exist between early and late hominin species.

They found that Au. ramidus had very similar characteristics to Sahelanthropus Tchadensis an ancestor that dates to 6-7 million years ago. Ardi had a foot that was primitive and had an opposable big toe which was most likely used to grab on branches. She also had a long and curvy spine just like humans. Its pelvis was large like those of apes and had short and broad shoulders suggesting it had a lower center of mass and could possibly walk on one leg at a time. But it is also thought that it was still spending a lot of time in the trees as well. Thus, why it is thought to be intermediate form of bipedalism it lived in both worlds, walking upright, and climbing trees, equal success in both biospheres. Although Ardi is not the connection to apes it still served to prove that the ancestor of apes was a lot more primitive than we believed. There are still several questions to be answered in this puzzle called our ancestry. It may seem that more questions arise as more clues are found, but that is science, there would be no intrigue left if all questions were

After many weeks of practicing, for a few moments, Doodle stood up by himself. Eventually, Doodle could walk for a few seconds. One morning the narrator and Doodle decided to show their family that Doodle could walk. The narrator helped Doodle up and “Doodle walked slowly across the room and sat down at his place at the table” (Hurst 5).

“The Scarlet Ibis” is a short story by James Hurt that describes the life and relationship of two brothers coming over challenges that has affected their lives. Doodle, the younger brother has struggled with a variety of health issues since he was born resulting in the inability to walk. Doodle’s older brother has always struggled with the idea that his brother isn’t “normal”. This caused him to resent Doodle for not being the brother he imagined. The narrator's desire to have a normal brother becomes so great that he chooses to help his brother learn to walk. This task challenges both of them mentally and Doodle physically. The way the narrator teaches Doodle to walk at times could be cruel, but Doodle did learn to walk. The narrator's

In the short story, “Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst there holds an empty casket. William Armstrong is a little boy that’s expected to die as an infant because of his rare heart condition. According to his doctor, he would never be able to walk or take care of himself, everyone thought he was going to die at birth. After he was three months old and hadn’t died yet, his parents decided to name him William Armstrong, but his brother thought was a tombstone name. At two, they laid him on his stomach; he would overwork himself terribly trying to move. His doctor said it would over work his heart too much and he could die, but it still did not kill him. He finally learned how to crawl, and when he did he would crawl backwards. His brother said he looked like a “doodlebug”, he became known as Doodle. Doodle was living his life in a haven, because it seemed like he could not do anything with the conditions given to him. His older brother was sick and tired of it. He wanted a brother who he could play with, and it was as if he was ashamed of him. Brother decided to take matters into his own hands and concludes that he’s going to teach Doodle how to walk and run. One day, he pushes Doodle far past his abilities and thinks that Doodle can handle running for a long period of time. After Doodle’s brother ran away, Doodle had a heart attack. That Saturday before the first day of school, Doodle demonstrated persistence and he was audacious, but he was also fragile.

First, evidence from the hominid fossil Ardy and archaeological evidence from the same area where Ardy was found points to the evolution of bipedalism in a woodland environment. This goes against the previous assumption that bipeds adapted to a more desolate environment. Additionally, it was also previously believed that bipedalism started with organisms that walked on two legs and their knuckles as a today’s chimp walk. However, there is no evidence in Ardy’s bones that it ever walked using its knuckles. On the other hand, Ardy possesses a short, broad hipbone which allows for bipedalism, but also a much longer lower half of the pelvis which would be more useful for climbing. Consequently, while Ardy could walk on two legs, it could not walk as well as future bipeds such as the fossil Lucy or modern humans. Lucy is often described as “the ape who stood up” and is further down the evolutionary track toward modern humans. This evolutionary adaptation to stand and walk on two legs opened great doors for humankind. Most important was the fact that walking on two limbs rather than four freed up our very special hands and empowered humankind to build tools and reshape the world as no creature could

The Ardipithecus ramidus foot shows key characteristic features of bipedality. Whilst there is evidence to show support for bipedalism it is hypothesised that was an occasional form of locomotion used less commonly than arboreal methods. This can be seen through the

Approximately 4 million years ago a wonderful evolutionary phenomenon was happening in Africa. Early hominids, man’s ancestors, were beginning a giant leap in their evolution. These hominids were moving out of the forest and beginning to walk upright, out on the open plains (Fagan, 98). This change from quadrupedalism was the most significant adaptation that ever happened to these early hominids. It caused many adaptations that make man what he is today. This process occurred in early hominids for many different reasons, each reason helping to perfect the upright walking posture. Bipedalism is thought to have occurred because of changes in environment, feeding habits, thermal regulation, and

The Laetoli tracks in the photo below have two sets of tracks. The left set which were made by smaller feet, and the right set which were made by larger feet. The distance between foot prints – the stride – is practically the same between the two sets of prints. Humans with larger feet tend to have larger legs and will naturally take longer strides. This could imply that the two Australopithecus afarensis who made these tracks could have been walking together side by side because the tracks with larger feet had a shorter stride equal to that of the smaller feet. Assuming that the two Australopithecus afarensis were walking side by side, they would have been very close, practically shoulder to shoulder. Where the feet plant

There has been much debate concerning the origins of bipedalism. Bipedalism, or the ability to move on two legs (eLucy, 2007) was said to have emerged due to climate change in East Africa, for sexual display purpose, to reduce exposure to sunlight, the need to use weapons and tools and many more (NOVA, 2013). There are numerous arguments associated with bipedalism as no one can be entirely sure as to what constituted to the emergence of this trait, which was first present in hominins Australopithecus Afarensis. Anthropologists claim that there is a missing link in the evolutionary lineage that makes it hard to confirm the real cause of bipedalism emergence. However, there are some models which are widely accepted by scientific world, such

The human foot is an example of micro-evolutionary and macro-evolutionary changes. It has had to adapt to bipedal walking and the stress that is caused by being upright. To identify changes in the human foot; comparative, molecular, and biocultural approaches and their paradigms are used. Therefore, different, and cumulative approaches are needed to make informed hypotheses in biological anthropology. The foot will be shown as an example of approaches commonly used and the resulting perspectives in biological anthropology.