Why do humans walk upright? The main premise of discussing this issue is that limbs support the body, whether it is running, hunting or surviving, it is far better than walking upright. Therefore, there must be enough incentives and kinetic energy to make Ancient Apes evolve to walk upright. At least, I think the forest disappears, and then the ancient apes go down from the tree to the ground, and then walk upright, completely untenable. In the vast grassland, lions are rampant. Is it easy to be discovered and eaten when walking upright, or is it easy to be discovered and eaten when walking on all fours? The sky is vast, the wilderness is vast, and cattle and sheep appear in the wind blowing grass. If the cattle and sheep walk upright, they will be discovered and bitten to death by lions, hyenas, and without wind blowing grass.
Upright walking is the golden key given to human beings by natural selection. It inadvertently triggered a huge evolutionary switch, and since then it started an irreversible evolution process, continuously stimulating other characteristics of the human body to continue to appear, guiding humans to move towards civilization. Such a major change must be carefully examined.
The first important feature of walking upright is the arch of the foot. arch is very important for upright walking. In addition to providing the necessary elasticity, walking saves more effort, and can also protect the brain from the huge impact of walking. Otherwise, running will become a concussion. The arch also proves that early humans gave up the habit of climbing trees. If you try to hold a piece of wood with your feet, you can see the difference between yourself and monkeys. This is also very important and is also the basis for the theory of the ancient apes' upright walking theory that the disappearance of forests has led to the disappearance of ancient apes. I will analyze it carefully later.
The second important feature of upright walking is the pelvis. The pelvis is a bone pelvis that can act as a skeleton hub, with the spine on top and the thighs on the bottom. It can be imagined that because walking upright, the human pelvis must be stronger to support the weight of the upper body.
The third important feature of upright walking is kneecap . The human kneecap not only ensures that the legs can bend freely, but also must bear the strong impact of jumping and running, so the kneecap is larger, harder and stronger.
The research on ancient human remains found in African caves showed that they had arches and may be the earliest ancestors of human beings, at least 1 million years ahead of Lucy, the previously recognized "human grandmother"! This also means that the evolutionary history of human ancestors will now be calculated 4 million years ago. In other words, 4 million years ago, human ancestors would walk upright.
mentioned Africa here, and add a sentence, " human origin in Africa" Some "only see trees, not forests", reproductive isolation will not vary depending on the degree of civilization. One can smash stones as tools, and one can not smash stones as tools, there is no reproductive isolation between each other. Therefore, it is really hard to explain whether the ancient apes in Africa can smash stones first or the ancient apes in Asia can smash stones first, and there is no need to figure it out. Even if the primitive man traveled to the present millions of years ago, who dared to say that there is reproductive isolation between him/her and today's human beings? If not, reproduction will continue, and when his/her genes gradually spread to the world, who will have the origin?
4 million years ago, human ancestors would walk upright. So, to study why humans would walk upright, we must turn the time back to 4 million years ago. In other words, fossils and ancient ruins within 4 million years are meaningless in answering why humans walk upright. At best, it shows how humans can reproduce and develop after walking upright. Therefore, it is wrong to walk upright to free up the forelimbs in order to . It is wrong to make and use the tool . Humans walk upright for at least 1 million years earlier than the appearance of stone tools. In order to intimidate the opponent , it is also wrong. The existing chimpanzees and gorillas will also stand and threaten the enemy, but they do not gain the ability to walk upright because of this.
In 2006, a strange family appeared in Türkiye . Occasionally opened a skylight for human evolution , allowing us to see the biological reasons why humans walk upright. There is a family in Türkiye who have raised 19 children, five of whom have no ability to walk upright at all, and can only crawl with their hands and feet. Their language and behavior have also greatly regressed, and they speak loudly like orangutans. This shows that the significance of walking upright far exceeds its behavior itself. It is not just a matter of bone arrangement, but is most likely closely related to language and intellectual development.
Genetic analysis confirmed that in the bodies of those crawling children, genes related to upright walking have undergone mutations, triggering a series of behavioral changes. Further research seems to prove that there may be only one or two genes between walking upright and crawling. We may stand up in a moment of thought or continue crawling. It depends on whether the key gene has random mutations.
The problem now changes to which one is easier to survive, an ancient ape walking upright after a gene mutation or an ancient ape walking with four limbs without a gene mutation. The answer is about to come out:
1. Walking upright saves energy . Researchers put a small mask on chimpanzees to measure the consumption of oxygen , and then let the chimpanzees race against people on the treadmill. The result is amazing. The energy required for humans to walk upright is only about 1/4 of that of chimpanzees. That is, at the same distance of movement, when chimpanzees need to eat four bananas, it is enough for humans walking upright to eat only one.
2. The place where humans originated is most likely on the modern continental shelf, currently at the bottom of the sea. When humans originated, they were in the ice age. A large amount of water existed in the form of glaciers, and the sea level was about 100 meters lower than the current level. Therefore, the current continental shelf was a large plain at a low altitude at that time, for example, one meter above sea level. If the tide height at that time reached two meters, this large area of tens of thousands of square kilometers would be periodically in the state of the large plain and the sea water surface. At this time, only ancient apes walking upright can survive well in and use their forelimbs to collect. At the same time, because lion saber-toothed tiger and other beasts have exited this area, so there is no problem of being eaten because of walking upright. Year after year, day after day and day in the process of cyclical seawater struggle, the apes have lost their body hair and like salty tastes, so that their ethnic group can grow relatively safely.
Walking upright is the golden key given to human beings by natural selection. It inadvertently triggered a huge evolutionary switch, and since then it started an irreversible evolution process, continuously stimulating other characteristics of the human body to continue to appear, guiding humans to move towards civilization.
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