Why Do We Walk on Two Legs?

What is it that separates the orangutans, chimpanzees, and gorillas from their human cousins? Well, it’s the ability to walk on two legs! Bipedalism, or the ability to walk to two legs, is one of the most important things that separates humans from four legged animals.

Scriptwriter: Brandon
Director: Rebecca Gill
Camera: San San
Audio: Kevin Cunningham
Editor: Kevin Cunningham
Host: Jayde Lovell, Science Communicator, NYSCI
Follow Jayde on Twitter and Instagram: @JaydeLovell

Sources:

COME ALONG AND VISIT: ‘THE EVOLUTION – HEALTH CONNECTION’

Explore the role of evolution and natural selection in health, illness, and prevention.

Over 6 million years, humans have evolved. The ways in which we evolved promoted our survival and reproduction, but not always our good health as our lifestyle changed over many, many years.
Free with NYSCI admission.

The Evolution – Health Connection includes:

Why is there an “obesity epidemic”? – Explore how our evolutionary history causes us to crave sweets and fatty foods. Watch a 2-minute video on The Evolutionary Roots of Obesity, and compare your favorite irresistible sweet or fatty food with those of other visitors.

Why do so many people have trouble digesting milk? – Find out how genes play a role in whether you can digest dairy products. Watch a 3-minute video, The Roots of Lactose Intolerance, and discover how lactose tolerance arose due to the rise of animal husbandry and find out the percentage of lactose tolerance in populations around the world.

Becoming Bipedal – Learn how walking on two legs instead of four had great advantages for early humans, but also comes with costs to our health as we get older.

Why is giving birth so difficult? – Discover how human evolution has resulted in mismatches between a baby’s head size and the size of the mother’s pelvic opening, leading to uncomfortable births and immature infants.

Where did your ancestor’s skin color evolve? – Find out about melanin, the dark skin color pigment that regulates how much UV light gets into our skin. Using a skin color reader, find out where your ancestors may have come from.

The Evolution – Health Connection was developed by NYSCI in partnership with the Center for Human Growth and Development and the Natural History Museum, University of Michigan, the Miami Science Museum, and a broad group of science and museum advisors. Funding for the development of The Evolution — Health Connection is provided by the National Institutes of Health.

The Evolution – Health Connection was developed with a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) grant from the National Center for Research Resources, a component of the National Institutes of Health.

[godzillamaster]

Why do I want to walk on four legs now

[giovannytorres]

guess I'm walking on four legs now :/

[Muhammadsimba]

I always walk on four legs I don’t even know why actually now I know I know because I like animals

[frankdimeglio]

WHAT IS THE FUNDAMENTAL EVOLUTIONARY ADVANTAGE OR IMPORTANCE OF BIPEDALISM:

You all missed the fundamental point regarding bipedalism. THOUGHT, emotion, AND feeling are INTERACTIVE. Consider what is a dog or a pig, for example. It's heart is inside it's head. It is the differentiation of THOUGHT in RELATION to emotion AND FEELING that is fundamental ON BALANCE. Indeed, it is a very great truth that THE SELF represents, FORMS, and experiences a COMPREHENSIVE approximation of experience in general by combining conscious and unconscious experience. Sleeping includes dream EXPERIENCE. Consider the body position. The Common Chimpanzee is BETWEEN our dream experience AND our wakeful experience. Consider their much reduced habitat/experience IN GENERAL. For example, ON BALANCE, consider what is their SIGNIFICANTLY reduced experience of pain. Now, consider what is upright waking. INDEED, the Common Chimpanzee lives exactly TWO THIRDS as long as we do (COMPARATIVELY that is, meaning in captivity, of course). In fact, we spend about ONE THIRD of our lives sleeping. Great. ACCORDINGLY, ON BALANCE, consider knuckle walking AND their overall body posture (and/or bodily positioning) with regard to what is BASICALLY a 45 degree angle. GREAT. IMPORTANTLY, the INTEGRATED EXTENSIVENESS of thought AND description is improved in the truly superior mind !!

By Frank DiMeglio

[marcoarias]

I have the ability to walk on all fours

[TinSpy]

this probably mens their are aliens as smart as humans who walks on four legs out there

[memeguy]

This is fake we came from Adam and Eve Jesus made us