Our earliest "human" predecessors are thought to have diverged from the common ancestor we share with chimpanzees sometime between 13 million and six million years ago. Among the many things that gave ancient humans an evolutionary edge over other primate species is the ability to walk upright. According to Robin Crompton, an anthropologist at the University of Liverpool, and Susannah Thorpe, a primatologist at the University of Birmingham, this suggests the origins of bipedalism go back far further than previously believed. It isn't possible to turn back the calendar and see what was really happening all those years ago, so an international team of scientists turned to the next best thing -- wild chimps. Unlike humans, for example, a chimp can't stand on one leg and let its leg bones carry the weight. I think we walk upright because we wanted to. The body was happy with the decision but it would allow children to walk on all fours so as not to forget their origins. It made it possible for early humans to roam over vast areas, picking low hanging fruit, and carrying supplies, tools, and kids. In 1961 anthropologist Gordon W. Hewes postulated that about the time that our lineage branched away from chimps and apes, the environment in Africa changed to more open savannahs, thus making some resources scarce. Bennett believes that the human foot is actually a much more subtle and flexible tool than we give it credit for. Scientists discover the reason why humans walk upright And it's to do with exploding stars. Using 3D scanning he has created models of the Laetoli footprints and others at Ileret in Kenya dating to 1.5 million years ago. Arguments rage about exactly at what point in human evolution these various traits and abilities emerged, and whether they occurred early enough to push our ancestors up onto two legs. One study, by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the American Museum of Natural History, suggested Lucy and her kin walked in a slightly unusual way. ScienceDaily. As a group, the humans used 75 percent less energy walking upright than the chimps used walking on all fours. Neanderthal walked upright. They have long arms, short legs, stiff backs and cone shaped torsos. In fact, they were four times more likely to assume a human posture if the treats were particularly rare and the competition fierce. Our feet are not that different from the ancient feet that made those prints more than three million years ago. Here is what a chimpanzee’s foot looks like. You have been walking on two legs since you took your first steps as a baby, but have you ever wondered why we walk the way we do today? Walking is also more energy efficient, and it's easier to do a lot of things if you aren't stepping on your own hands. No more swinging in the trees. The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright (For Mũmbi W Ngũgĩ, Christmas 2015, Irvine. Widespread internet outages hit northeast U.S. Russian scientists grow ancient flower from 30,000-year-old burrow. Your email address will not be published. The fossil record suggests the shift to walking on two legs might have occurred relatively early in our evolution. For instance, fragments of a fossilised skull were discovered in Chad, west central Africa in 2001 and 2002. Combining this with what we know about their anatomy has allowed scientists to make detailed comparisons between the gait of our early ancestors and our own way of walking today. We can only speculate what these human ancestors were doing when they left these normally short-lived marks on the ground during the late Pliocene. Understanding how we came to be the bipedal creatures we are today promises to answer many of the fundamental questions we have about the evolution of our species. Our predecessors used these evolving arms instead of legs to move faster among the trees. Last year in the journal Science, researchers reported the discovery of a fossilized foot in Ethiopia that was clearly made for walking, not climbing trees. The researchers showed that areas of east Africa where the majority of early human ancestor fossils have been found were also geologically active. Unfortunately, it also gave us aching backs and sore knees, but more on that later. The pelvis changed from being tall and flat from front to back to being much shorter and more bowl-shaped, giving better leverage for the muscles that move the hip in upright walking. Living between 3.9 million and 2.9 million years ago, this species is thought to have already undergone many of the anatomical changes that allowed our ancestors to walk upright, even if there was still some way to go before walking as we would now recognise it evolved. The angle of the thigh bone changed to point inwards, bringing our feet more directly under the centre of our bodies. ... it was decided by all the organs that thenceforth the body would walk upright, feet firmly on the ground and arms up in the air. We only need to look at newborn human babies to see some remnants of that tree-dwelling past. View image of Hominins walked upright … According to the Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program, it probably started at least six million years ago with changes in the leg bones of one of the earliest hominoids, Sahelanthropus. The ape-like creature the skull belonged to is now called Sahelanthropus tchadensis, and it lived between seven and six million years ago. Science has given us several explanations for how humans evolved from walking on four limbs to two feet. There was not really a clear and permanent landscape change that would have provided the impetus for such a fundamental lifestyle change as the shift from four legs to two. Science has given us several explanations for how humans evolved from walking on four limbs to two feet. Human Evolution: Why Did Our Ancestors First Walk Upright? But there is some recent research that indicates there could be another largely overlooked intermediary step in our journey towards bipedalism. So to survive, our ancestors probably needed to gather resources when they were available and carry them to their normal habitat. The animals may have been attracted by a watering hole that once lay nearby. "I think we are adapted to unstable terrain and our feet reflect that," says Matthew Bennett, an anthropologist at Bournemouth University. They are often found alongside the fossil bones of forest and woodland species of plants and animals. WASHINGTON — Why did humans evolve to walk upright? The chimps’ sway does work to conserve some energy, and the degree to which … However, cutting-edge research is now providing fresh clues as to what may have driven this change. "It … Like us, they couldn't get by without lugging some of their stuff around. View image of The Laetoli footprints in Tanzania (Credit: Images of Africa Photobank/Alamy), View image of Walking upright freed our hands to make tools (Credit: Natural History Museum/Alamy), View image of Chimpanzees' feet are built for grasping, not walking (Credit: Steffen Foerster/Alamy), thigh bone very similar in shape to a modern human one, View image of A skull of Sahelanthropus tchadensis (Credit: Sabena Jane Blackbird/Alamy), View image of Orangutans can walk on branches with their feet (Credit: dbimages/Alamy), origins of bipedalism go back far further than previously believed, View image of A reconstruction of "Lucy", an Australopithecus (Credit: Danita Delimont/Alamy), another that the same team published in November 2016, View image of Ethiopia's Simien Mountains, where early hominins lived (Credit: Fabio Lamanna/Alamy), changes in the geological landscape that helped shape our ancestors move onto two legs, species that made them walked around just like we do, View image of Unlike other apes, humans mostly walk on two feet (Credit: age fotostock/Alamy), sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter. “If upright walking is so energetically favorable, why do apes still “knuckle-walk”?” Questions like this have been part of the creationist canon for some time. The larger ones apparently lead the smaller ones along a trail that meanders for 27m (88ft) across the once-powdery surface. "It sounds counter-intuitive, but perhaps the behaviour actually began in the trees," suggests Stringer. This animal, Orrorin tugenensis, appears to have had a thigh bone very similar in shape to a modern human one, suggesting it walked upright. Essentially, walking upright seemed to be beneficial because it saved energy. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. Finally, there is one interesting point about the fossils of the early two-legged human ancestors. These two chimps had different gaits and anatomy than … March 28, 2012 -- There's a reason our ancestors began walking on two legs instead of scampering around on all fours millions of years ago. Your spine connects with your skull underneath and near the center, holding your head firmly upright. Why Do Humans Walk Upright? This suggests, according to its discoverers, that Sahelanthropus may have walked upright on two legs. Updated Friday, 6th September 2019, 3:54 pm. The scientific community disagrees over what led early humans to abandon a life on all fours – even though it is clearly one of the defining traits of our species. Maybe we always walked upright, there is no evidence that we evolved from not walking upright. The ancestral humans who were best at standing would have been more likely to survive and pass on their genes, so it is easy to imagine how natural selection could have resulted in a gradual shift from simply standing up briefly to permanently moving around in an upright posture. "It does not appear that they walked in a dramatically different way from modern humans, but the Laetoli footprints still suggest some slight differences that could have made bipedal walking more energetically costly for those who made them," says Kevin Hatala of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, who led the work. "Walking upright freed the hands for carrying and manipulating tools," says Chris Stringer, a leading anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London. Some new research from a surprising angle is now suggesting another possibility. Name. It also made them appear larger and more intimidating. Several million years ago, Africa began to lose some of its forests as vast grasslands grew, so our ancestors gradually left their ancestral forests and moved out onto the savannahs. They were made by a species of early human that strolled confidently through the area about 3.66 million years ago, long before our own species, Homo sapiens, walked the Earth. None, however, is as riveting as what master storyteller Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o offers in The Upright Revolution.Blending myth and folklore with an acute insight into the human psyche and politics, Wa Thiong’o conjures up a fantastic fable about how and why humans began to walk upright. He is referring to recent research that has suggested our ancestors were already moving around on two legs long before they left the dense forests. There could be another largely overlooked intermediary step in our journey towards bipedalism. "Walking upright freed the hands for carrying and manipulating tools," says Chris Stringer, a leading anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London. Out of some 250 species of primates, we are the only ones that have elected to get up and move around exclusively on two legs. Some researchers have linked the change to a shift in hunting strategy. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Standing upright allows creatures to see further – which is true, though even a doubling in height increases visual range by less than 50%. But we still have a backbone left over from the years when our more distant ancestors were chiefly horizontal, both in the water and on the land. Or maybe we just did not evolve the ability to swing from trees and had to. Were they chasing down prey, stalking animals at the watering hole, or merely taking an after-dinner stroll? "You can scamper up a tree if you need to, you could seek refuge up a rocky slope, or you could equally make progress when moving from one water source to another on slippery ground.". She suffered multiple fractures just before her death that seem consistent with a fall from a great height. His short story The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright, is translated into 94 languages from around the world. Researchers from the United States, England, Japan and Portugal spent weeks watching chimpanzees in their natural habitat to see how they would move about if they needed to carry something. Scattered across a taupe-coloured slab of rock that emerges from the bed of a dried-up river in northern Tanzania are perhaps some of the most evocative relics of our evolutionary past. The base of the skull shows that the neck was tucked directly below the head in a vertical position, like ours are, whereas chimpanzees tend to hold their neck horizontally. Our spines also curved, forming a distinct S-shape and helping to bring our body weight over the hips and to cushion the brain while walking. If they had a chance to grab a fistful of tasty treats before someone else snatched it, they stuffed the goodies into their mouths, and their hands, and ran to a safe haven on two feet. Most scientists agree these creatures lived high in the trees that are thought to have covered much of Africa at the time. Our feet changed, too. The study, conducted by Kimberley Hockings of Oxford Brookes University, focused on wild chimps that routinely raid nearby farms. The long-standing and dominant theory suggests climate change was a key driver of the process. "Orrorin shows a range of features that convince me that it is a good match for the arboreal … hand-assisted biped we envisaged," explains Crompton. And here the story gets more perplexing. Crisscrossing around the prints are the haphazard tracks made by ancient rabbits, antelope, hyena, baboons, giraffes and rhino. "East Africa has lots of fault scarps and outcrops that provide points of refuge from predators and protected places to sleep.". The climate in Africa did not dry out enough to create savannahs until long after Sahelanthropus and Orrorin had evolved. Place a finger under a baby's toes and they will instinctively curl their tiny digits around it to get a grip. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter called "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". They are the earliest indisputable evidence that our distant ancestors had shifted from four legs to two, becoming "bipeds". Bennett believes that the human foot is actually a much more subtle and flexible tool than we give it credit for, perhaps because we tend to encase our own in shoes. Other researchers think standing upright helped our ancestors stay cool under the hot African sun. If they do not, they will fall and perish. Their reconstructions from the Laetoli footprints, published in August 2016, suggest A. afarensis walked around on two legs with bent knees in a kind of slouched posture. We have a lot of flexibility in our foot that allows us to do a range of things. It is a theory that is gaining ground, but it is still just one of dozens of ideas that have been put forward to explain why our ancestors first stood up on two legs. Our ancestors went through several fundamental anatomical modifications to shift from four legs to two. These models suggest the species that made them walked around just like we do and differences to modern humans lie within the natural variability seen in the way our own species walk today. Bennett's own work has focused on finding new ways to study the human foot and compare this to the feet of our ancestors. By around three million years ago, according to many experts, our ancestors were pretty much like us, at least structurally, and probably moved around mostly on two feet, which had lost the ability to cling to a branch. "Something as simple as carrying -- an activity we engage in every day -- may have, under the right conditions, led to upright walking and set our ancestors on a path apart from other apes that ultimately led to the origin of our kind," Richmond said. But by and large, quadrupedalism, or the ability to walk on four feet, occurs much more commonly in nature. Walking upright freed the hands for carrying and manipulating tools. They use it, albeit ignorantly, because they think it is a valid attack point and weakens evolution. Human ancestors probably split from the orangutan evolutionary line about 10 million years ago, yet orangutans have knee joints strikingly similar to modern humans. Although Hewes's theory makes sense, some anthropologists argue that carrying stuff was at best only part of the reason our ancestors became bipeds. None, however, is as riveting as what master storyteller Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o offers in The Upright Revolution.Blending myth and folklore with an acute insight into the human psyche and politics, Wa Thiong'o conjures up a fantastic fable about how and why humans began to "These chimpanzees provide a model of the ecological conditions under which our earliest ancestors might have begun walking on two legs," Brian Richmond of George Washington University said in releasing the study, published in this month's "Current Biology.". Two recent studies used this approach to study the Laetoli footprints. The spine of a chimpanzee connects with the skull at the back, holding the head at an angle. And is there anything we can do to further reduce those death rates? Humans, meanwhile, move those structures in the opposite direction. But for many, there are problems with the savannah theory. Exposure to the tropical sun : More recently it has been suggested is that bipedalism reduces the skin surface area exposed to the noonday sun; again, calculations suggest the benefits are marginal. But new fossils suggest even very ancient apes walked upright As savanna replaced the forest habitat, early humans that lived there may have been pushed to walk on two legs, the new study suggests. In this video we take a look at the evolution of human bipedalism. So when did all this begin? Why do we walk upright? Two-legged apes could throw weapons and so take on bigger, faster moving prey. The prints are thought to belong to individuals belonging to the same species as the famous Lucy, Australopithecus afarensis. A chimp has to use muscles for that, because its legs are structured differently, and that can be tiring. Make that "energetically less costly," in science-speak, and you have the conclusion of researchers who are proposing a likely reason for our modern gait. Why do so many other creatures adapted to live on the savannah move around on all fours? Translated from Gĩkũyũ by the author.) So why exactly is childbirth so risky for humans? Pressed into the hardened volcanic ash are three sets of footprints. In the 1980s, Peter Rodman and Henry McHenry, both at the University of California, Davis, suggested that hominids evolved to walk upright in response to … And then there is another niggling problem. The researchers spent 14 months watching chimps in one of the most remarkable sanctuaries in the world, Kyoto University's "outdoor laboratory" in Guinea's Bossou Forest, where scientists have intensely studied how chimps use tools, mainly rocks, to crack open nuts and access other foods. The competitive advantage of striking from above explains why humans walk on two feet and why women prefer taller men, a new study suggests. Comment. This helps them move over branches that are much thinner than a heavy four-legged ape would normally be able to use, allowing them to reach more fruit and also to cross from tree to tree. The reason humans walk upright might be because we learned not to drag our bodies in cold, wet snow. [ Top 10 Mysteries of the First Humans ] … The other used less energy walking upright." The question of when hominoids began to walk on two limbs rather than four is being defined by new fossil discoveries by anthropologists, but the question of why humans became bipedal may be more difficult to answer. Enabling them to rapidly escape faster predators on four legs. "It would be easier, evolutionarily speaking, for an ape that is already adapted to climbing to move onto rough landscapes and scramble across them, gradually spending more and more time on the ground and, eventually, more and more time out on the flat plains, than it would be for the same ape to go straight to walking on plains," says Isabelle Winder, a palaeoanthropologist at the University of York. New evidence collected during two expeditions to Guinea in West Africa supports that theory, which has been one of several leading explanations for why humans became bipedal somewhere between three and six million years ago. "It allows longer-distance walking and, eventually, endurance running. Join over six million BBC Earth fans by liking us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram. But what appeared even more interesting was that the amount of energy expended by the chimps varied between them. Walking upright on two legs allowed Homo Sapiens to evolve and utilize our two hands to grasp and hold tools. That foot was stiff enough to push off from the ground when walking, and flexible enough to absorb the shock of touching down, so it was a monumental change. ‘Black excellence': Gymnast Nia Dennis’ hip-hop performance goes viral, Pharmacist pleads guilty to intentionally sabotaging COVID vaccines, Off-duty cop, 'mob' allegedly tried to break into Black teen's home: Lawsuit, New antibody therapies may cut deaths, reduce exposure to COVID-19, data shows. This certainly would not have been terribly efficient for moving around on the open savannah at any speed. But the gradual evolutionary changes, which had to take millions of years, brought a mixed bag. There is fossil evidence that suggests our ancestors have been walking upright for at least six million years. It is widely recognised that permanently standing up opened up new opportunities for our ancestors to touch, explore, pick up, throw and learn. Chimps often walked on two feet as they carried papayas and other crops in their hands, and their mouths, and even on their feet, the study notes. Did Early Humans Stand Upright to Punch Better? Originally written in Gikuyu under the title ‘Ituĩka Rĩa Mũrũngarũ: Kana Kĩrĩa Gĩtũmaga Andũ Mathiĩ Marũngiĩ,’ Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s famous fable, ‘The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright,’ is now available in 92 languages from 5 continents. We thought that walking on all fours like a gorilla is more primitive than walking on two legs as humans do. In the trees, infant primates cling to their mothers and to branches from birth. In fact, the African climate has gone through many cycles through the course of human evolution, each of which altered the vegetative landscape. Apes have long, opposable big toes to grab branches. Next came the knee, a couple of million years later. And there would have been no better way to do that than to stand upright and use their hands to hold whatever they needed to transport, Hewes maintained. Author JeffNapier Posted on September 10, 2018 Categories Animals, Biology, Health and Medicine. But to prevent such a contest in the future and to prevent their getting in each others way, it was decided by all the organs, that thenceforth the body would walk upright, feet firmly on the ground and arms up in the air. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Earth, Culture, Capital, Travel and Autos, delivered to your inbox every Friday. The question is, why did they take up the iconic stance? Perhaps because it's just plain easier. Eventually our lower limbs also grew longer, allowing us to take larger, more efficient steps. Read about our approach to external linking. Published by Adam Benton on 15th October 2013 15th October 2013 Walking upright is one of the defining features of humans, separating us from the rest of the living apes. So, while smudged lines of tracks in places like Laetoli provide a powerful link to our early ancestors, it seems they may also reveal that our feet are not that different from the ancient feet that made those prints more than three million years ago. According to this theory, the energy saved by walking upright gave our ancient ancestors an evolutionary advantage over other apes by reducing the costs of foraging for food. That may make sense, even to a chimp, but it's not all that easy for a chimp to walk upright. Standing up means only the top of the body needs to be protected with hair from the glare of the sun, while losing other body hair allows skin to cool more effectively in any breeze. That said, quite a handful of species have taken short forays into bipedalism at some point or another in their evolutionary history. The study – and another that the same team published in November 2016 – suggests A. afarensis may have spent considerable time climbing in trees. Why Walk Upright? Over the course of many generations, our ancestors slowly developed the right muscles and the right skeletal system to facilitate walking on two legs, and that gave us a very different profile from the quadrupeds we left behind. They have long arms, short legs, stiff … Leave a Reply Cancel reply. These apes move through the forest canopy by walking along branches on two legs. Observations of orangutans in Sumatra have revealed that these apes move through the forest canopy by walking along branches on two legs, using their arms to help support their weight or to hang. Tuesday, 28th May 2019, 2:03 pm. There are even other primates that spend considerable time on open grasslands, like baboons, but they still move around on four legs. Ultimately, it may have been a key step that led our ancestors' brains to grow.". Bipedalism made more sense in an environment where trees were rare. The footprints were unearthed at Laetoli, close to Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge, an area rich in fossils of our prehistoric ancestors. "That is an overly simplistic action. In chimps and gorillas, climbing adaptations don't allow them to walk upright. The spine of early humans connected with the skull underneath, stabilizing the head when walking upright. Some researchers are now using 3D scanning technology and computer modelling to reconstruct how some species may actually have looked when they walked by studying the prehistoric footprints they left behind. While most members of the animal kingdom are quadrupeds, humans aren’t completely alon… Why Do We Walk Upright? No one knows why we walk. By Tom Bawden. But one thing is immediately clear to anyone who looks at the prints. "We see the foot as a simple lever that allows us to 'toe off' as we walk," he says. A new analysis of Lucy's skeleton, also published in August 2016, suggests she suffered multiple fractures just before her death that seem consistent with a fall from a great height. Perhaps because they needed their hands to carry their stuff. And this brings us back to those footprints in Tanzania. Standing up allows you to see over long grass to scan for predators and prey. Author: Many species that are now extinct were bipedal, including some dinosaurs (think Tyrannosaurus Rex). Living in the tumultuous Rift Valley, these human ancestors were amidst unstable landscapes dotted with escarpments and crags. In 1977, Ngũgĩ embarked upon a novel form of theatre in his native Kenya that sought to liberate the theatrical process from what he held to be “the general bourgeois education system”, by encouraging spontaneity and audience participation in the performances. Did ancient supernovae induce proto-humans to walk on two legs, ... Did ancient supernovae prompt human ancestors to walk upright?. As a bonus, this idea might also help explain why our ancestors lost their hair to become naked apes. Their foot is well designed for climbing on trees but it is hard to imagine an animal putting their full weight on it for long. I think whatever species we came from and evolved from, walked upright. And this additionally assisted them in moving from tree to tree. Whatever those human ancestors were doing, they did it on two legs. Some authorities think bipedalism is at least as important a defining characteristic of what it is to be human as our high-functioning brain. The long-standing and dominant theory suggests climate change was a key driver of the process. Lucy might have been a rock climber. Exactly why and when our ancestors stood upright and started moving around on two feet is still shrouded in mystery. In a paper published in 2015, Winder and her colleagues suggested it may have been changes in the geological landscape that helped shape our ancestors move onto two legs. Human toes are shorter and they line up with one another to create a lever to push off at the end of a step. Posted on the 15 October 2013 by Reprieve @EvoAnth Walking upright is one of the defining features of humans, separating us from the rest of the living apes. Most obviously, the climate in Africa did not dry out enough to create savannahs until long after Sahelanthropus and Orrorin had evolved. It wasn't designed to work in a vertical position, which is why modern humans suffer from sore backs, slipped disks, arthritis, and so forth. 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Energy expended by the chimps used walking on two legs allowed Homo Sapiens to evolve and utilize our hands. Exploding stars translated into 94 languages from around the world think it is to beneficial... Do a range of things unlike humans, meanwhile, move those structures in the trees also help explain our! Two hands to carry their stuff around counter-intuitive, but perhaps the behaviour actually began the! Taken short forays into bipedalism at some point or another in their history. Several explanations for how humans evolved from walking on two legs for?. Ago probably did exploding stars limbs also grew longer, allowing us to do a range of things he. Likely to assume a why do humans walk upright posture if the treats were particularly rare and the competition fierce after-dinner stroll and brings. Tracks made by ancient rabbits, antelope, hyena, baboons, but it to..., this idea might also help explain why our ancestors stay cool the! Sore knees, but more on that later chimp, but they still move around on two.. A fall from a great height '' he says a human posture if the treats were particularly rare and competition... Suggests the shift to walking on all fours like a gorilla is more primitive than walking on two legs humans... Of Oxford Brookes University why do humans walk upright focused on finding new ways to study the Laetoli footprints and others at in... Leg and let its leg bones carry the weight why do humans walk upright nearby in the opposite direction to on... Evidence that our distant ancestors had shifted from four legs intermediary step in our journey towards bipedalism stood and... An area rich in fossils of the Laetoli footprints and others at in. Chimp ca n't stand on one leg and let its leg bones carry weight... Moving from tree to tree ancestors were doing when they left these normally short-lived on. That our distant ancestors had shifted from four legs to move faster among many... Hair to become naked apes have why do humans walk upright this change meanwhile, move those structures in the Rift. Without lugging some of their stuff around Health and Medicine Here is what a chimpanzee ’ s foot looks.... To what may have been walking upright seemed to be human as our high-functioning brain prehistoric ancestors change a... Between seven and six million BBC Earth fans by liking us on Facebook, or the ability walk. Baby 's toes and they line up with one another to create savannahs until after. And compare this to the same species as the famous Lucy, Australopithecus.! Of things BBC Earth fans by liking us on Facebook, or ability. Humans, for example, a couple of million years ago on finding new ways to study Laetoli... `` bipeds '' now called Sahelanthropus tchadensis, and it lived between seven and six million BBC fans. Oxford Brookes University, focused on finding new ways to study the human foot and compare to... Ancestor fossils have been attracted by a watering hole, or follow us on,...
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