Bipedalism Among Hominins

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

Chimps and Gorillas can at times stand upright but they most often move on all fours. Bipedalism has been proven to be the most efficient was of movement throughout the animal kingdom. Walking allowed our ancestors to travel to new territories which led them to new more dangerous situations which they had to face. Standing upright allowed our ancestors to see further, (which is why we no longer rely mainly on smell). However standing like this was not originally intended the back was not meant to support all of the weight, this is why we have back problems. I also lead to many changes in our skeletal structure such as the thickening of our pelvis. Other changes in the human skeleton included changes in the size of the bones of the foot, hip size and shape, knee size, leg length, and the shape of vertebral segment.

Another important physical adaptation was bipedalism. This allowed early hominids to migrate longer distances which would lead to enhanced cognition.

Bipedalism is an important aspect in regard to the comparisons between Homo sapiens (humans) and primates. There are many advantages and disadvantages that are present when an organism possesses the ability to walk in an upright manner. This is a skill that took millions of years to become present in humans as there were very specific environmental circumstances that led to this trait becoming useful. In the paragraphs below, I will explore the following topics: the advantages and disadvantages of bipedalism, the timeline of the trait’s rise to prevalence, and the environmental factors that influenced such an ability.

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.

Primates first evolved from the trees of tropical forests, later to the ground. Through the times of promisians to human, many characteristics has been represented due to the adaptations to new environments and resulted in evolutionary changes. The Earth has encountered several geological and climatic changes over time. For the primates existed at that time had to adjust itself especially in body configurations and locomotion in order to better survive. It is important to be aware of this information since we are the part of occurring changes as well. Throughout the evolution owing to

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

Main Article: 'The Advantage of Standing Up to fight and the Evolution of Habitual Bipedalism in Hominins'

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 males were typically seen to be taller in height than the females, but with each member having a different height the trait can vary among offspring. If the environment demands for taller offspring then it will naturally select for that trait among individuals,

Bipedalism, a locomotion that consist of the two lower limbs to move. This can be found in many animals, but it is considered more “optional” than “mandatory” as a way to transport. Some use it as a defense mechanism. In humans, it is one of the special characteristics that is used to differentiate the human species from the rest of the Hominidae family. Only humans have “mandatory” bipedalism. Other characteristics include massive brain size and the ability to make and use tools (Lovejoy,1988). It was discussed that because of going from quadrupedal to bipedal it cause many advancements such as brain development. Bipedalism was the biggest evolutionary change for the human ancestors. Nobody really knows the origins of bipedalism, but there are some theories that might explain it. It can be the freeing of hands to use tools or to hold and carry resources or offspring. It can be change of habitat from woodland to plain or use of defense mechanism to look beyond the plains for predators at further distance. It can also be energy efficient and to run longer more easier compare to quadrupedalism. Bipedalism gave many advantages with the change of human body, mainly the skeletal structure, but is it possible that some of these changes have tradeoffs? Some scientists believe that certain illnesses, injuries, and health complication are the results of the change of skeletal structure to become bipedal. There are disadvantages for bipedalism and it can differ between male and

Peter, 103). Thus, bipedalism of living hominids is considered to be more efficient than quadrupedalism (Rodman, S. Peter, 104). The morphology of locomotion is often a comprise with other dimensions of existence (Rodman, S. Peter, 105).

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 evolution of man has always been a controversial topic. However, no matter what your beliefs are the fact is that man evolved from primates. There is very credible fossil evidence to back this up. Fossils allow us to dig deeper into our past and give us an understanding of what life was like for our ancestors. Particularly, I believe that fossils of our ancestors show that we had to develop bipedalism because of natural selection and environmental factors.