Benefits Of Bipedalism

What evidence shows the changing from the early hominids to the modern humans? Throughout the human evolution body parts like legs and harms have changed for the better. By the early hominids being biped, meaning they are able to stand and even walk on two feet, it helped them to be able to do more things like getting around more and help with their tool making and hunting. A lot of the fossils discovered were found in the Great Rift Valley in East Africa, which contained many different lakes and small rivers. For many years researchers have been finding new species. These species have been named Australopithicus, robust australopithecines , Orrorin tugenensis, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, neanderthal, and Homo sapiens. These early

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

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.

In the article “Born to Run” by Adam Summers, who is an assistant professor of bioengineering and ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Irvine, the author states that throughout time bipedalism has evolved to benefit endurance running. Summers also claims that bipedalism modern humans have differs from the one our early ancestors had. The author relies on the research by Dennis M. Bramble and Daniel E. Lieberman that have improved the understanding of human bipedalism and its evolution. According to Summers, the corrections made by Bramble and Lieberman’s research helped to draw a more accurate picture of an early human.

The first behavior, locomotion, is well known for hominins because of the evolution to bipedalism. Bipedal locomotion allows for the carrying of objects, provisioning family, and efficiency of energy, among many other reasons. Not all primates are bipedal. Chimpanzees can walk both bipedally and quadrupedally. They have been a common point of reference for a better understanding of the evolution of bipedal locomotion in early ape-like hominins. Many studies have looked into the evolution of walking quadrupedally to bipedally. These bipedal performances of contemporary non-human primates have given important context that can help in reconstructing early hominin bipedalism. Many anthropologists claim that biomechanical models link locomotor performance to anatomy and have the potential to reveal robust form function relationships, however, this is only given to the extent that locomotor performance of chimpanzees and other species are shown to fit

The evolution of the human species has significantly changed during the course of evolution to what is now the modern day Homo sapiens. Some of the changes that have occurred through the evolution are bipedalism, changes in body features such as brow ridges, and an increase in brain capacity.

Bipedalism was the first evolutionary change to define the hominid lineage. It was a major evolutionary change that changed the way we move. Bipedalism is the condition of using two feet for standing and walking. Before bipedalism emerged we were walking on all fours just as many animals do presently. Bipedal locomotion dates back to 7 million years ago with one of the candidates which is Sahelanthropus tchadensis. The other two candidates for the earliest bipedal hominid are Orrorin tugenesis, and Genus Ardipithecus. This evolutionary change brings about several benefits such as being better adapted to live on savannas, having freed hands, more efficient for travel, and better regulation of body temperature. However, similar to many evolutionary changes, Bipedalism comes with “costs” or disadvantages. These disadvantages include our loss of speed, and more stress on lower body joints including the spine.

Current ideas suggest that the common ancestor of humans and African apes lived only about 5-8 million years ago; so, for more than 50 million years, humans and the African apes have shared primate ancestry. Within this ancestry, a new level of movement began to come into existence known as bipedalism: the ability to walk and run upright on two legs. There are various theories about when our ancestors started walking upright, but a popular view is that perhaps about 7-million years ago, early hominids began to adapt to a climate that was cooling globally. The huge rainforest expanses in Africa were being replaced with savannah and patches of woodland, requiring the tree-climbing apes to become more adept at walking on land. Our ancestors who ventured out into the savannah were rewarded with roots, shrubs and occasional animal carcasses, ensuring that those who walked on two legs were more likely to survive. Even so, the jump from trees to land is not all that significant because some of the early hominids’ anatomical structures may have already been pre-adapted to bipedalism while climbing trees and stretching for fruit. Bipedalism primarily allowed hominids to free their arms completely, enabling them to make and use tools efficiently, stretch for fruit in trees and use their hands for social

As Lovejoy indicates that males need their hands to carry food for their partners and offsprings, so that bipedalism starts to appear. This hypothesis is hard to prove, however, logically speaking, carrying highly energy-rich food such as nuts or fruits is beneficial to the group and community. A study conducted in West Africa suggests that early hominids walk upright to carry resources away from other competitors. Researchers provide piles of oil palm and nuts to 11 chimpanzees, who prefer the nuts. According to the research, the chimps are four times more likely to walk upright with two legs, so that they are able to

Humans are the only living species today that follows obligate bipedalism. This is a clear difference and an advantage we

Bipedalism allows for faster travel times when it comes to certain obstacles but it does not have an advantage with other obstacles. Being two-footed does help ease the obstacles that are encountered (Parker, & McBrayer, 2016). Locomotor efficiency hypothesis is a valid hypothesis because it allows for testing but it makes since taking into to account where the first bipedal hominins were found and what was most likely the terrain. There was mostly forest and grassland and for long distance one must need to have energy as well as the ability to move around obstacles with ease.

Natural selection happens when an organism has a better adaptation to its environment and is able to pass on its offspring. We humans slowly evolved into bipedalism which means we walk on two legs. We slowly evolved into being a bipedalism because nature forced us to into it. So what’s so special about us that walk on two legs instead of other mammals that usually walk

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 differences that exist between early and late hominin species.

But why was bipedalism so critical to human evolution? It is the earliest human feature to have evolved in hominins. Darwin felt that it was to free up the hands for making of tools and weapons. However, the first stone tools don’t appear until approximately 2.5mya, many years after the first evidence of bipedalism in hominids. A more logical explanation may be that bipedalism was selected simply because it is superior to walking quadrupedally. The Efficient Walker theory argues that bipedalism enabled hominids to travel further to locate food and fertile territory which coincided with the disappearance of Miocene forests and emergence of savannas in Africa.

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