Evolution has enabled us to walk upright in a locomotive form known as
bipedalism. While this form of motion is quite energy-efficient, it is not what our muscular-skeletal system
is best suited for—something that many people with back
and/or knee
problems can attest to. Bipedalism evolved in human
predecessors somewhere around 6 million years ago, and there
are a number of theories as to why bipedalism became the dominant mode of
locomotion. The shift to walking upright occurred before our ancestors’
brains started to grow to anywhere near the size of modern humans, and
before they had begun to use rudimentary stone tools.
This change in locomotive methodology
brought with it a host of anatomical changes; our feet, knees,
hip, spine, and even our skull all had to change to accommodate this
mode of moving. This
week’s edition of Science features a cover article describing the find of some very old hominid footprints.
Dating to around 1.5 million years ago, the series of footprints found at
Ileret, Kenya gives anthropologists a clear view of what our ancestors
feet looked like at that time, and it turns out they looked
quite…
human.
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