good theory! but personally i think it had to do with price increases in gloves! that's why the thumbs on the feet got reduced so we could wear shoes instead. --> money saved! :P
@@ph2738 good point, it's why professional pedalologists suggest that future speciation events within what is now one species, Sapiens, might lead to monopeds (Homo Singlelegiensis) because of the biological necessity to have the number of legs match the number of wheels (known as the leg-to-wheel-ratio-1-law). no serious scientist however believes that humans will become quadropeds, since most four wheeled vehicles are mostly automatic, that's biologically completely different, obviously :P
Thanks for the video! I've always meant to ask, what is the thing that looks like the skull of a saber-toothed cat doing on your shelf full of primate skulls?
Great video. but it doesn't answer the question that one naturally asks of other prey species on the savanna: "What does this animal's body plan tell one about its relationship with its predators?" Consider porcupines, ostriches, gazelle. The null hypothesis answer to that question is that Australopithecus was distinctively or thematically a weapon user. Short canines and short toes left it with no means to escape from a tree-agile leopard in a tree, or to threaten to bite a leopard. The most plausible defensive weapon would be a thrusting spear. Consider Annemieke Giselle Milks' PhD thesis "Lethal threshold" but maybe question her view that pre-Homo Heidelbergensis were too stupid to make spears. Dart and populariser Ardrey proposed that long time ago.
Your videos are broken down simply enough I can show my Christian family and see them die inside as they try to dance around reasoning. God bless your little heart😂
Aw, in a way that makes me feel bad. It's like the same feeling one gets in crushing the soul of a small child or an animal. Well, unless you're a psychopath or sociopath, I guess, because they either don't care or delight in doing stuff like that. However, it's better to live in reality with regular faith than living in a total fantasy like Young Earth, so sometimes spirits must be depressed in some cases.
" *my Christian family and see them die inside* " Interesting, that it brings you joy... The vast majority of Christians are not creationists, so call your family Creationists, not simply Christians. Anyway, what she proposed here borderlines a miracle. How so? Very simple. She claims there was not a single primary cause of bipedal walking, but a combination of factors. Calling something "a combination" makes sense only if the factors are unrelated. If one primary factor causes a bunch of related events, we wouldn't call it a combination. Say, some chain smoker died of a heart attack, you wouldn't say that he died due to "a combination" of smoking and heart attack, would you? But let's say he was old, then you could say that the heart attack happened because of smoking and age, since smoking does not cause age or the other way around. Those two factors are unrelated, so it's a combination all right. Thus, she claim that a bunch of unrelated factors contributed in various ways to bipedalism. The problem is, that the probability of unrelated events happening together is the mathematical product of the probability of each single event. You start multiplying those, you arrive at microscopically small resulting probability, which commonly would be referred to as *a miracle* if it every happened. Show that to your Creationist family, will you?
@@ChristopherSadlowski Please, don’t feel bad. I was raise in an extreme (hostile) Judeo-Christian environment with no tolerance of others (aka deniers of truth). There was the right way, the LORD’s Way and then the damned. I was constantly ‘corrected’ for bringing up controversial points like why should I ‘smite’ the ‘wicked’ to preserve the Lords way, when these people are just living a different lifestyle? These digestible clips of logic and reason she posts help me connect with them on their (I’m better than most because I have a college degree) intellectual level to show that their religion is based off tales and legends gathered from the area of origin, no different then other cultures. I am not as educated as they are but I find people who are to help explain why we all can move on from fairytales and work together for each other to help extend our species existence.
@@KaiHenningsen oh no! I can't even do a headstand, let alone a handstand! If this catches on I'll have to be the weirdo who remains on legs. I can walk on my hands underwater though... ::imagines what it feels like breathing through gills:: Yeah, if I get me some gills then this could work out! And it would be fun to be an upside-down mermaid! Merman? Mer...person? Hm. Nah, I think any ocean living person should be called a mermaid. I'll have to form a naming committee to hash out the details of our nomenclature.
The only logical progression that would allow head-walking would be a radical change in the structure of our ears. The intermediate steps in this process would be an interesting exercise in hypothetical thinking.
As a former YEC christian and current history nerd who recently started my BS in Anthropology (for the archaeology) I have to say your primatology and evolution lessons are incredibly helpful! Keep it up and keep being awesome :)
I hope you’re feeling alright, though. It can be difficult shifting to a new worldview because you feel sort of hollow. It’s a similar feeling when you finish a really good TV show and think “what now?”
@@sporovid5856 That’s definitely true. I’m currently studying paleoanthropology and am working at a great museum teaching others about human evolution, but coming from a heavily Christian family with a very creationist father that transition was very tough and it gave me some pretty great mental health issues due to all the criticism and the idea that everything I was raised to believe was wrong. It’s been a while since that but I still have some struggles, but I’m doing much better and I’ve been trying my best to help those in similar situations. It sure can be hard.
@PurpleRhymesWithOrange - I once saw a documentary called "The Family That Walks On All Fours", about a rural Turkish family with members who ambulated on all fours in a 'bear crawl' - soles of feet and palms of hands. It was determined that they have some non-progressive genetic brain impairments that interfered with balance. Once they came to light, they were provided with parallel bars and physical therapy instruction, following which at least one member was able to begin bipedal walking.
"this is what I think based on current data but it doesn't mean I'm right and science can change based on new observations" (paraphrased) SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE CREATIONISTS IN THE BACK!
Had this video on with my daughter in the room, and prompted a conversation about Jane Goodall. She loves science and animals, and I love to see she has two great role models 👍
So our ancestors stood up to see over tall grass and yell at lions while carrying food and babies after hanging orthograde from a branch while wading across a shallow river before being eaten by a crocodile. I call this my everything hypothesis.
Okay I have a confession I haven't always been a biped when I was very young I was a quadruped and although don't really remember it I have seen photo and video evidence that suggest that I switched to byped upright locomotion due to peer pressure from others mostly my parents and I am not saying that this was the case for everyone only my personal experience Obviously this is just weird sense of humor so I will see myself out now. ✌😎 P.s I still do some knuckle walking depending on how thick the underbrush is that I'm traveling through hope this helps still just a joke. 😂🤣🤣
I just can’t imagine the incurious who would rather find the complete set of answers in Galilean Goatherd’s Guide to the Universe. What do they do for fun? Burn books? Plan purity ceremonies? Practice at the gun range?
Hey, I've watched the introduction several times now, and I have to ask. Could you do a video on Homo Sapiens and how old we are, and what paleontological history we've found specifically on our development, as well as how old we are? I want to know everything you can tell us, but specifically, I'm excited to see information regarding the age of the species. I've consistantly heard something about our species being 100,000 to 150,000 years old, with reference to one set of 350,000 year old fossils in Morocco that "Looked like modern humans" with a caveat that they might not quite be Homo Sapien. I would like to hear your take on the issue, as you would have some background and training regarding the issue that laypeople either wouldn't, or might have overlooked.
Both dates can be correct in a sense, once one realizes that the 100k - 150k is not the age of our species but a ballpark estimate of when "Mitochondrial Eve", the last woman ancestor of all of us, is believed to have lived. There are many fossils of Homo sapiens older than that.
Psh, this is easy. The reason we stood up is because we gotta get more water. Or go to the bathroom. Which are *not* two problems that solve each other, DAVE.
Isn't the woodland hypothesis basically like a more gradual version of the savanna hypothesis? The transition from forest to savanna wouldn't have happened instantaneously over the course of the Miocene/Pliocene. Instead, you would have forest opening up into woodland and then to savanna, with the hominins adapting every step of the way. In the end, it is still environmental change propelling the development of bipedalism in hominins. I agree with you though that hominins probably swung between branches like orangutans before transitioning to bipedalism.
Although there were several factors that led to bipedalism in hominids; the rising of the land mass of East Africa, which led to the spread of the Savannah, and physical evolution itself, as we moved further away from our primate ancestors, I believe that the deciding factor, the one that provided that final push, was the sudden and shocking onset of self consciousness. The emergence of the human intellect and spirit from the animal realm. Descartes' "I think, therefore, I AM."
@@hot656moo658 Human bipedalism emerged a million years before expanded brain capacity. It is like no other bipedalism in the world. It makes us unstable and slow and it was that way long before we could take advantage of it for persistence hunting.
I especially love these videos where you're looking at something specific for the day, and also your updates about things happening in the paleontology community! Thank you so much!
Way cool. Things have changed a ton since I was in high school/college 30+ years ago. Never too old to stop learning new stuff. If you're not interested in learning it's time to take a dirt nap. So many interesting things going on all without the need for the hocus pocus of magical thinking.
Sometimes I wish we still had the physiology to walk on all fours, especially when my feet and back start to hurt. This is also coming from a person who imagines what it feels like to have a tail, and wishes he had a prehensile tail because it would be cool and useful having an extra limb to carry things around with. So...do with that what you will.
I won't pretend to be your doctor and if your problems are severe you should absolutely talk to them before trying anything, but I will say that moderate yoga as an exercise (moderate stretching plus using holding up your body weight in different positions as a form of lifting plus balancing) can be excellent at strengthening the small supportive muscles that often atrophy in bad posture or when favoring certain body parts that hurt (as in my case happened from developing a bad gait from wearing bad shoes that caused me pain in everything from the soles of my feet to my mid back) but which are critical in holding yourself up in a way that doesn't strain your joints and depending on the cause of your pain can work wonders. If you're familiar with weight lifting at all, it's very similar to the difference between how free weights train small muscles that weight machines miss, just in this case the free weight is your own body and the exercise is largely static instead of largely dynamic. A good yoga instruction will focus at least significantly on it being another form of exercise and possibly simple meditation for those that want to mix them (rather than trying getting highly mystical about anything) and actively encourage you to modify positions which are either too easy or too hard for you and tell you to stop if there is any pain. Not a doctor or physical therapist or anything and I don't know your specific situation, so take all of that with a _massive_ pinch of salt, though...except for the bit about avoiding bad yoga classes. Just because yoga is good for people doesn't mean there aren't bad ways to do it just like anything else.
That's due to your bad health. A healthy human has an easier time traversing long distances than other apes. That's one of the advantages of bipedalism.
There might be attractive examples of parallel development in Ursids and Procynids. Some are suspensory and slightly bipedal. It might be that woodland and savanna and desert species show this more that rainforest species. Provisioning can be seen in UA-cams of raccoons scooping up armloads of fruit and running away bipedally, if that is a word. Lots of them stand up to look around. Maybe it’s important for fighting - the erect posture for the threat display and the use of front claws for holding and ripping. Maybe similar to hominids getting better with tools and weapons. I think paleo anthropologists shouldn’t forget the importance of the ability of hominids to throw. I wonder if there is anything in fossil anatomy that shows the ability to throw.
To hold weapons to defend ourselves. As slapping or kicking a saber tooth was less than effective. And toothbrushes. Definitely those early toothbrushing needs.¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I Effing love these videos that go a little more into the weeds and get crunchy with the details on these subjects. Thank you for not over simplifying things!
The thumbnail offered the question, "Why did we stand up?" Here's a few facetious answers, one of which you suggested: Why do we stand? 1) To reason. 2) To be counted. 3) Because we're tired of sitting all the time. 4) To take our dogs for a walk. 5) In order to walk away from an annoying and inane conversation . . . . Anyone else got some ideas to tack on here? I'd welcome any civil inputs . . . .
Most interesting. I learned some new things, one of which reinforces my own hypothesis. I had figured that gorillas and chimps had both split off from our common ancestral line, and did convergent evolution in similar environments, but hadn't heard any support for that. So thanks.
Why we stood up is obvious. Humans actually began mutual domestication with wolves/dog much, much, earlier than previously thought. Because of our posture while quadrupedal, sniffy dogs tended to poke their _cold_ noses right into our warm, comfortable, sensitive spot.. Wheeeoooooo! Up we went..
The whole body of work of this woman is one of the best things that exists on UA-cam. What a treasure to find this, if you care about the world, humanity, things outside of yourself. What a beautiful data object to exist
I think the selective pressure to move full time to the ground would have been a combination of things. Primarily food pressure and competition for territory. At some point humans started eating grasses and we still do today. Rice, corn, wheat, barley etc. I doubt we suddenly realised we could eat that stuff when we invented farming. If we're eating the seeds of tall grasses, we probably want to be standing upright.
Actually we didn't eat any of that stuff until very recently (c. 10-15k years). Raw grass seeds will make you very sick if you try to eat them. It is only when they are soaked, sprouted, ground, cooked, and otherwise processed that they are even edible by us. What we started eating when we came down out of the trees is meat perhaps starting with carrion and later developing hunting.
@@robinbeers6689 and yet there are primates that live on grass. Our digestive systems have changed with our diets over the millions of years that have passed.
@@aikiwolfie Humans don't eat grasses. There are very few wild plants that are edible by us without cooking, mostly some roots and fruits. Most of the produce aisle at Whole Foods is stuff we created very recently. There is no such thing as wild broccoli. It is a human engineered derivative of the wild mustard plant as is the entire cruciferous section of the produce aisle. The fruits we have have been engineered to be more sugary and less fibrous (ever seen a wild banana?). The tubers have been engineered to be less fibrous and more starchy. Just in terms of calories, wild plants are not really worth gathering and eating unless you are seriously hungry. They were the plan B option if the hunt went badly.
I like to think that the early bipedal hominins are like, "Because we just wanted to," while we're all trying to answer the Why question. I kinda likening to people trying to figure out why did ancient civilization or ancient group A build B, to me, because the folks that built B just wanted to.
One more comment, on the "traveling ape" hypothesis you presented. While it does make sense on the surface, I have a big problem with accepting this scenario. Because of speed. In order for bipedal walking to have any meaningful energy savings over quadrupedal or knucklewalking motion, the distances traveled need to be quite big. So we require from an ape which is barely able to stand upright to spend hours upon hours walking the open ground? Then, when it finds this new food source, it reverts back to treedwelling? It makes little sense to me. One would expect that the time spent out in the open, with no cover from predators and no means of escape should pressure such an ape towards speed, *not* energy efficiency. The remote source of food needs to be plentiful in order to be worth the travel at all, by definition. I don't see how small savings of bipedal walking could ever become crucial enough to be selected for. Wading ape hypothesis solves all those problems, plus it explains plenty of other hominid features.
What are the odds we will ever be able to determine genomes for extinct species over 1M years back? Is it even possible? If they somehow got perma-frozen maybe instantly after death? Or any other way? Like Jurassic park where we find amber encased mosquitoes with DNA in their bellies? Or somehow once AI develops enough it may be able to reverse engineer based on the genomes of extant species that are descendants, if it has say multiple current descendants to examine to make a backwards projection? I know linguists do something similar to reconstruct parent languages when they have a collection of derivative languages. It gets harder the farther back you go obviously. But the more derivative languages a parent language has the more data they have to use to try to reconstruct it with.
Why are humans bipedal? Obviously, being unipedal would look silly, pogo-ing around all the time, falling down a lot. Science has determined, however, that the male of the human species sometimes exhibit somewhat tripodal characteristics.
An adaptation that occured after the environment changed? Also efficient for thermoregulation? These make sense to me. Also Pluto is still a planet in my heart.
I enjoy this type of presentation more than the debunking creationism. I understand creationism is a pet peeve of yours, it’s just not something I think about
Gibbons have to be bipedal on land cuz quadrupedal locomotion, if possible, would to risky due to posture forcing their gaze to the ground. Cuz their arms are over twice the length of their legs
Please do an explanation on how we began cooking meat. I postulate that Harry fell in the fire, everyone said “damn, Harry smells good; let’s toss a pig in the fire”. No speculation as to whether we nibbled on Harry.
I wonder if you have any thoughts regarding bipedalism and the reduced birth spacing found in humans along with the disappearance of a visible estrus cycle. Is it possible that having more offspring closer together would have given the lineage leading to modern humans a competitive advantage? It seems to me that females carrying multiple offspring would need either group assistance or the assistance of a reproductively vigiilant male to care for them.
the monogamous pair bonding idea is adorable, but being polyam it doesn't really sit right with me. Gathering resources for a mate/s doesn't necessarily mean monogamy - see bonobos
We are not only the only bipedal ape, we are also the only ape that can throw a rock accurately. Our shoulder needed to change from climbing and knuckle walking to a full rotation. If a group of primates learned to pelt a carcass with rocks to drive other scavengers away, that would create a feedback loop to make us better throwers as well as long distance walkers.
That is one change I really would like to know the pressures and actual changes of along the way. There are a whole host of mutations that would need to happen (and I am not sure if they have to be linear or if they could have been spread out.) For example: the socket is smaller in humans and the muscles are weaker in humans (not as much swinging from branch to branch). Could one ancestor have had the weaker rotator cuff, and another a moderately smaller socket, and then when their descendants mated they passed along both traits to the offspring and now you had a (comparatively) super thrower? Or was it one, then another a few generations later, and now great thrower?
@@bludfyre If more accurate throwing led to eating better, there would be genetic pressure rewarding it. In order for us to throw accurately, we need our solid bipedal stance. You don't need to be fully bipedal to throw something, but if you find a way to make a living by throwing things effectively, morphology will follow by building a better platform.
usually when I stand up it is to walk to the restroom or to the refrigerator! sometimes I just want to flick off a theist face to face! hooray for obligate bipeds!
my theory has always been that we invented ownership. this is my big stick and i'll hang onto it. oh, now i don't have my hands free. or carrying young even. 10:30 oh dear, this is really going to confuse the creationists, not only did we descend from apes, but now we descend from trees too, lol.
Gathering resources for a group guarantees bipedalism. Even the great Apes walk on two legs while carrying logs or engaging in combat. Love your info, GG. 🇨🇦✌️👽 The Canalien.
Personally I prefer the idea that a particular ancestor came down to the ground permanently is the first and biggest reason for going full upright. It makes sense when you think about it. Look at any tree bound ape and consider how the move along the ground. They're like ducks. Easily moving through their preferred environment. Then when you put them on land they are ungainly and awkward. Similarly an ape out of the trees almost bows when the walk. Legs back and head forward, their over land speed and stamina aren't especially great. Chimps are a great example. If they are able to use the full 3 dimensional space of their environment they truly are a force of nature. If you force them to stay on the ground though any number of feline hunters would be happy to put primate on the menu. I think our standing up had as much to do with more efficient food gathering as it did with getting away from predators. Even if I'm wrong, it's still closer to the truth then what any religion could come up with.
Another great video, thanks! Do you have any videos specifically exploring the development of our human hands and more specifically the thumb and the unique abilities of our arms in general? It seems to me that we have a unique ability to throw accurately and I wonder if this may have started during the transition from living primarily in trees to spending more time on the ground, perhaps as a way to use teamwork to get food up into the trees which would be to cumbersome to climb with. The group gathers the food on the ground and carries it back the the trees where they make their home, some climb up and prepare to catch the food and others throw it up to them. I'm not educated on this subject so I don't know if there are any obvious flaws you might see in this idea but it seems to me that even with a less developed anatomy for throwing, a pair of apes could make this strategy work and improvements in anatomy for this purpose would surely be preserved.
I feel drawn to the hypothesiis that the throwing adaptation had to do with hunting. Using weapons at a distance makes it a lot less likely for the hunter to get injured, so ...
@@monsterinhead214 I wish I were allowed to read the rest of your comment but it cuts off at "...less likely for the hunter to get injured, so..." and gives me no option to read more. As for the part I can see, I think that hunting further refined an ability to throw accurately but that, without some pre-existing ability to throw fairly accurately, there wouldn't have been enough to build on for hunting. A chimp can fashion and use a simple spear but you don't see them throwing spears for hunting, I think humanity's ability to throw things like spears was built on an ability to throw accurately developed for another purpose in which precision is useful but being somewhat accurate will be good enough. If you're throwing food to your friend in a tree, your friend won't run away if you miss.
@@danbrownellfuzzy3010 Or, for Expanse fans, you mgiht recognize the quote: "You give a monkey a stick, inevitably he'll beat another monkey to death with it."
I grew up countryside, spent years climbing trees, steep hillside, and dealing with dry heat coming off corn fields after summer harvest watching hawks ride a thermals. I spent hours over the years learning to use a stick to walk like a chimpanzee, you develop lower back and leg muscles you never knew you had. For a guy bent over like a stripper did feel more than a bit silly, but for wrestling it did help build up lower body strength. One stick to maintain balance and a secondary stick for clubbing and short spear jabbing. The way I drag my feet looked more like I was skiing cross country on grass/dirt.
There are some studies that suggest that primates are maybe more closely related to Lagomorpha(rabbits, hares and pikas) rather than to rodents. (A Molecular Phylogeny of Living Primates Polina Perelman et al for example). But we also see early evidence of tree climbing in primates. Could it be that a lot of primates including apes were accustomed to hopping or standing on the ground before they were truly apes? Therefor both knucklewalk and bipedalism being `easier` to transition to in this option.
What you say here meshes nicely with what I wrote about the little-known bipeds among the lemurs (the indri, the avahi, and the sifakas) a few minutes ago: they get around on the ground and in the trees by hopping, making spectacular leaps from one tree to another. I went on to ask whether this may have been the path humans took towards bipedalism. At the rate comments are being made these last few days, you should be able to find what I wrote easily by choosing "newest first" for a long time to come.
I think the savannah hypothesis makes sense, these early hominins needed to see over the tall grass to constantly survey their surroundings. They were known as Homo wherethefuckarewe.
Today the savannah hypothesis has largely been rejected by the scientific community based on evidence showing bipedalism started in aboral forest apes.
I favour the, “ Run like hell,” model. Humans were pathetic little things very low on the food chain. They had to run fast to escape from those big animals with teeth.
why haven't you included the Dinosaur examples? They are a perfect example of convergence, just like Sharks, Dolphins and Ichthyosaurs? The nice thing is, unlike the Ichthyosaurs, there are living animals that are true bipeds, the Avian Dinosaurs. Heck, Penguins directly converged on a perfectly spine verticality that Humanids have.
Your students, including us in the current audience, are SO lucky. Brilliant, superbly educated and able to clearly explain key subjects without getting down into the weeds.
Because we moved from the Tropical Rainforest and an arboreal life - to the open savannahs - where there are fewer climbable trees. Bipedalism allows the carrying of weapons such as stones or wooden spears.
I am a little surprised that social hunting wasn't mentioned. Although bipedal motion is far from the fastest mode of transport in apes, its probably the fastest on the ground, and also allows quick acceleration and turning. Also if you are standing you get longer range of vision, which is important in what would by necessity be an ambush attack. The ability of groups of hominids to hunt together to catch larger prey is seemingly credited with the success and spread of the species, and fits in with the social nature of our ancestors. Perhaps I have got it all wrong because the development of group hunting is a much later thing.
Correction. We are NOT the only bipedal apes. We never knucklewalked. Look at gibbons who walk upright when terrestrial. Fight with fists, not teeth. Australopithecus was bipedal by convergence nesting between Pongo and Pan + Gorilla.
I think you're a bit too dismissive of the aquatic influence. We have so many features that make us better suited to the water than any other primate that, It's undeniable that it was an important part of our lineage. Our style of swimming, although quite poor compared to truly aquatic animals, is far more efficient than any other ape. A large part of that is due to our different body plan. If we had the body plan of a knuckle walker, we would also have the very ineffective doggy paddle style of locomotion in the water. That's no way to make a living in the water. So maybe the change in our body plan, due to the aquatic lifestyle, actually pushed us in the direction of bipedalism.
Fun fact: we actually became bipedal after the invention of shoes. They helped so much with protecting our feet that we could put more weight on them. Some cultures tried hand shoes but they restrict finger usage so that died out and here we are.
It's true! In fact, the automobile brake wasn't invented until 1895. Before this, someone had to remain in the car at all times, driving in circles until passengers returned from their errands.
I’ve always been a fan of the brachiating to standing hypothesis. Look at gibbons. They are bipedal on the ground. The brachiating body lends itself well to two-legged walking. Knuckle-walking to bipedalism seems more complicated. And maybe it’s knuckle walking that is the more useful adaptation; after all, it happened twice. Maybe going from brachiating to quadrupedal walking to bipedal walking is more complicated than going from brachiating to bipedal walking.
In my opinion, carnivorism is the key to bipedalism. Carnivorism drives the use of tools. One cannot brachiate like a gorilla, while holding a flint handaxe.
A good summary Gutsick, let down by one single process or factor: it would have taken a very strong factor to bring about bipedalism. Nowhere in your analysis do you reference such a factor. So.. you have a little way yet to arrive at a tenable hypothesis, and I will watch for your vids here to see what progress you make.
When our ancient ancestors invented the bicycle, it necessitated a move to bipedalism.
good theory! but personally i think it had to do with price increases in gloves! that's why the thumbs on the feet got reduced so we could wear shoes instead. --> money saved! :P
However, most people move on four wheels. And what about unicycles?
@@ph2738 good point, it's why professional pedalologists suggest that future speciation events within what is now one species, Sapiens, might lead to monopeds (Homo Singlelegiensis) because of the biological necessity to have the number of legs match the number of wheels (known as the leg-to-wheel-ratio-1-law). no serious scientist however believes that humans will become quadropeds, since most four wheeled vehicles are mostly automatic, that's biologically completely different, obviously :P
the opposable thumb being necessary for ringing the bell proves this.
"If the Good Lord Intended Us to walk, He Wouldn't Have Invented Roller Skates."
-William Wonka
You keep me up to date about my relatives and always leave me with something new. Thanks for continuing wonderfulness.
Thanks for the video! I've always meant to ask, what is the thing that looks like the skull of a saber-toothed cat doing on your shelf full of primate skulls?
It was a gift if I recall
Would make a cool belt buckle
So hominids are the kangaroos to the tree kangaroos of the early apes.
Great video. but it doesn't answer the question that one naturally asks of other prey species on the savanna: "What does this animal's body plan tell one about its relationship with its predators?" Consider porcupines, ostriches, gazelle. The null hypothesis answer to that question is that Australopithecus was distinctively or thematically a weapon user. Short canines and short toes left it with no means to escape from a tree-agile leopard in a tree, or to threaten to bite a leopard. The most plausible defensive weapon would be a thrusting spear. Consider Annemieke Giselle Milks' PhD thesis "Lethal threshold" but maybe question her view that pre-Homo Heidelbergensis were too stupid to make spears. Dart and populariser Ardrey proposed that long time ago.
watched this twice in a row back to back so good.
I’ve heard that it was because we are better able to absorb sunlight for photosynthesis or something like that.
THe idea that we became upright because guys wanted to give their pregnant girls food is kinda cute haha.
Your videos are broken down simply enough I can show my Christian family and see them die inside as they try to dance around reasoning.
God bless your little heart😂
😂😂
Aw, in a way that makes me feel bad. It's like the same feeling one gets in crushing the soul of a small child or an animal. Well, unless you're a psychopath or sociopath, I guess, because they either don't care or delight in doing stuff like that. However, it's better to live in reality with regular faith than living in a total fantasy like Young Earth, so sometimes spirits must be depressed in some cases.
" *my Christian family and see them die inside* "
Interesting, that it brings you joy...
The vast majority of Christians are not creationists, so call your family Creationists, not simply Christians.
Anyway, what she proposed here borderlines a miracle. How so? Very simple. She claims there was not a single primary cause of bipedal walking, but a combination of factors. Calling something "a combination" makes sense only if the factors are unrelated. If one primary factor causes a bunch of related events, we wouldn't call it a combination.
Say, some chain smoker died of a heart attack, you wouldn't say that he died due to "a combination" of smoking and heart attack, would you? But let's say he was old, then you could say that the heart attack happened because of smoking and age, since smoking does not cause age or the other way around. Those two factors are unrelated, so it's a combination all right.
Thus, she claim that a bunch of unrelated factors contributed in various ways to bipedalism. The problem is, that the probability of unrelated events happening together is the mathematical product of the probability of each single event.
You start multiplying those, you arrive at microscopically small resulting probability, which commonly would be referred to as *a miracle* if it every happened.
Show that to your Creationist family, will you?
@@ChristopherSadlowski
Please, don’t feel bad.
I was raise in an extreme (hostile) Judeo-Christian environment with no tolerance of others (aka deniers of truth). There was the right way, the LORD’s Way and then the damned.
I was constantly ‘corrected’ for bringing up controversial points like why should I ‘smite’ the ‘wicked’ to preserve the Lords way, when these people are just living a different lifestyle?
These digestible clips of logic and reason she posts help me connect with them on their (I’m better than most because I have a college degree) intellectual level to show that their religion is based off tales and legends gathered from the area of origin, no different then other cultures. I am not as educated as they are but I find people who are to help explain why we all can move on from fairytales and work together for each other to help extend our species existence.
@@esthersayers9978 it's not really about who they are rather about who you are. We, skeptics, enlighten, not attack, others.
We walk on our legs because walking on our head would just be silly, it doesn't work. :P
Wonderful video as always!
But you _can_ walk on your hands! That does work!
I've tried tripedal and I just don't think it'll ever catch on.
@@KaiHenningsen oh no! I can't even do a headstand, let alone a handstand! If this catches on I'll have to be the weirdo who remains on legs. I can walk on my hands underwater though...
::imagines what it feels like breathing through gills::
Yeah, if I get me some gills then this could work out! And it would be fun to be an upside-down mermaid! Merman? Mer...person? Hm. Nah, I think any ocean living person should be called a mermaid. I'll have to form a naming committee to hash out the details of our nomenclature.
The only logical progression that would allow head-walking would be a radical change in the structure of our ears. The intermediate steps in this process would be an interesting exercise in hypothetical thinking.
@@barrylangille3523 That is such a cursed image!! hahaha
As a former YEC christian and current history nerd who recently started my BS in Anthropology (for the archaeology) I have to say your primatology and evolution lessons are incredibly helpful! Keep it up and keep being awesome :)
Congrats! 👍
Glad that you got out of that rabbit hole. Welcome to reality.
I hope you’re feeling alright, though. It can be difficult shifting to a new worldview because you feel sort of hollow. It’s a similar feeling when you finish a really good TV show and think “what now?”
@@sporovid5856 That’s definitely true. I’m currently studying paleoanthropology and am working at a great museum teaching others about human evolution, but coming from a heavily Christian family with a very creationist father that transition was very tough and it gave me some pretty great mental health issues due to all the criticism and the idea that everything I was raised to believe was wrong. It’s been a while since that but I still have some struggles, but I’m doing much better and I’ve been trying my best to help those in similar situations. It sure can be hard.
@@cerasinopshodgskissi3817Former YEC? What does that mean, if I may?
I knuckle walk regularly. It is a highly underrated form of scampering around in short spurts.
Same
But my fingers start hurting after
@PurpleRhymesWithOrange - I once saw a documentary called "The Family That Walks On All Fours", about a rural Turkish family with members who ambulated on all fours in a 'bear crawl' - soles of feet and palms of hands. It was determined that they have some non-progressive genetic brain impairments that interfered with balance. Once they came to light, they were provided with parallel bars and physical therapy instruction, following which at least one member was able to begin bipedal walking.
That sounds fun! It's also probably faster than running on two legs too.
@@Dekubud It's quick over short distances, like 20 feet, but I wouldn't be eager to run a mile that way.
"this is what I think based on current data but it doesn't mean I'm right and science can change based on new observations" (paraphrased) SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE CREATIONISTS IN THE BACK!
*Looks at the creationists* Um.. they are saying "you believe we came from a rock"
@@aralornwolf3140 - Ah, yes. They sometimes claim that atheists / evolutionist think "we evolved from rocks".
You are technically correct. The best kind of correct!
Eminem: will the real slim shady please stand up?
Gutsick Gibbon: well sure, but there's so much more to discuss
Had this video on with my daughter in the room, and prompted a conversation about Jane Goodall. She loves science and animals, and I love to see she has two great role models 👍
A friend of chimps is my enemy.
@DarthCalculus - Keep fanning that curiosity! (And ignore @MrCmon113.)
So our ancestors stood up to see over tall grass and yell at lions while carrying food and babies after hanging orthograde from a branch while wading across a shallow river before being eaten by a crocodile. I call this my everything hypothesis.
"All of the above" answer hypothesis XD
Ive replaced "yelling at lions" to yelling at cicadas in the summer.
Every good video needs a comment for the algorithm.
I hope the replies also count in.
aalgorithm response
Algorithm mic check 🎤: uno, dos, tres
Okay I have a confession I haven't always been a biped when I was very young I was a quadruped and although don't really remember it I have seen photo and video evidence that suggest that I switched to byped upright locomotion due to peer pressure from others mostly my parents and I am not saying that this was the case for everyone only my personal experience
Obviously this is just weird sense of humor so I will see myself out now.
✌😎
P.s I still do some knuckle walking depending on how thick the underbrush is that I'm traveling through hope this helps still just a joke.
😂🤣🤣
I just can’t imagine the incurious who would rather find the complete set of answers in Galilean Goatherd’s Guide to the Universe. What do they do for fun? Burn books? Plan purity ceremonies? Practice at the gun range?
I love seeing gibbons walking.
Yeah when they walk upright and looks so funny with the arms being extremely long.
Me trying not to wake my roommates at 3am.
Deny , deny, They r mongrels, face it,
Hey, I've watched the introduction several times now, and I have to ask. Could you do a video on Homo Sapiens and how old we are, and what paleontological history we've found specifically on our development, as well as how old we are?
I want to know everything you can tell us, but specifically, I'm excited to see information regarding the age of the species. I've consistantly heard something about our species being 100,000 to 150,000 years old, with reference to one set of 350,000 year old fossils in Morocco that "Looked like modern humans" with a caveat that they might not quite be Homo Sapien. I would like to hear your take on the issue, as you would have some background and training regarding the issue that laypeople either wouldn't, or might have overlooked.
Both dates can be correct in a sense, once one realizes that the 100k - 150k is not the age of our species but a ballpark estimate of when "Mitochondrial Eve", the last woman ancestor of all of us, is believed to have lived. There are many fossils of Homo sapiens older than that.
Helps with spotting danger...Frees our hands...Conserves energy(probably).
It does conserve energy. It's one of the reasons humans have such good stamina.
Well I think my cat isn't too happy when I stand up and she loses her lap sleeping spot 🤣
Psh, this is easy. The reason we stood up is because we gotta get more water. Or go to the bathroom. Which are *not* two problems that solve each other, DAVE.
Talking about 'professor' dave?
Like an Elephant Horse or a Dog walks on two legs to get water and have a dump ??
As myself, being a modern ape that daily “stands up” to go use the bathroom… I agree 👍
Isn't the woodland hypothesis basically like a more gradual version of the savanna hypothesis? The transition from forest to savanna wouldn't have happened instantaneously over the course of the Miocene/Pliocene. Instead, you would have forest opening up into woodland and then to savanna, with the hominins adapting every step of the way. In the end, it is still environmental change propelling the development of bipedalism in hominins. I agree with you though that hominins probably swung between branches like orangutans before transitioning to bipedalism.
Why are Humans Bipedal?
Actual answer if we were being honest: We haven't the slightest idea.
Although there were several factors that led to bipedalism in hominids; the rising of the land mass of East Africa, which led to the spread of the Savannah, and physical evolution itself, as we moved further away from our primate ancestors, I believe that the deciding factor, the one that provided that final push, was the sudden and shocking onset of self consciousness. The emergence of the human intellect and spirit from the animal realm. Descartes' "I think, therefore, I AM."
@@hot656moo658 Human bipedalism emerged a million years before expanded brain capacity. It is like no other bipedalism in the world. It makes us unstable and slow and it was that way long before we could take advantage of it for persistence hunting.
It is much easier to use weaponry ⚔🪨🩼🍳🏹 to kill things when bipedal.
I especially love these videos where you're looking at something specific for the day, and also your updates about things happening in the paleontology community! Thank you so much!
Way cool. Things have changed a ton since I was in high school/college 30+ years ago.
Never too old to stop learning new stuff. If you're not interested in learning it's time to take a dirt nap. So many interesting things going on all without the need for the hocus pocus of magical thinking.
Sometimes I wish we still had the physiology to walk on all fours, especially when my feet and back start to hurt. This is also coming from a person who imagines what it feels like to have a tail, and wishes he had a prehensile tail because it would be cool and useful having an extra limb to carry things around with. So...do with that what you will.
I won't pretend to be your doctor and if your problems are severe you should absolutely talk to them before trying anything, but I will say that moderate yoga as an exercise (moderate stretching plus using holding up your body weight in different positions as a form of lifting plus balancing) can be excellent at strengthening the small supportive muscles that often atrophy in bad posture or when favoring certain body parts that hurt (as in my case happened from developing a bad gait from wearing bad shoes that caused me pain in everything from the soles of my feet to my mid back) but which are critical in holding yourself up in a way that doesn't strain your joints and depending on the cause of your pain can work wonders.
If you're familiar with weight lifting at all, it's very similar to the difference between how free weights train small muscles that weight machines miss, just in this case the free weight is your own body and the exercise is largely static instead of largely dynamic.
A good yoga instruction will focus at least significantly on it being another form of exercise and possibly simple meditation for those that want to mix them (rather than trying getting highly mystical about anything) and actively encourage you to modify positions which are either too easy or too hard for you and tell you to stop if there is any pain.
Not a doctor or physical therapist or anything and I don't know your specific situation, so take all of that with a _massive_ pinch of salt, though...except for the bit about avoiding bad yoga classes. Just because yoga is good for people doesn't mean there aren't bad ways to do it just like anything else.
That's due to your bad health. A healthy human has an easier time traversing long distances than other apes. That's one of the advantages of bipedalism.
I'm sure I've said it before, but I really like your intro. It never fails to make me smile.
There might be attractive examples of parallel development in Ursids and Procynids. Some are suspensory and slightly bipedal. It might be that woodland and savanna and desert species show this more that rainforest species. Provisioning can be seen in UA-cams of raccoons scooping up armloads of fruit and running away bipedally, if that is a word. Lots of them stand up to look around. Maybe it’s important for fighting - the erect posture for the threat display and the use of front claws for holding and ripping. Maybe similar to hominids getting better with tools and weapons. I think paleo anthropologists shouldn’t forget the importance of the ability of hominids to throw. I wonder if there is anything in fossil anatomy that shows the ability to throw.
After the nightmare of a day I've had today, this is exactly what I needed - thank you, Erika, for what you do! ❤️ ❤️
You feeling a little better now, or do you still have the bad day lingering?
We got tired of the knees on our pants wearing out... duh.
To hold weapons to defend ourselves. As slapping or kicking a saber tooth was less than effective. And toothbrushes. Definitely those early toothbrushing needs.¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I Effing love these videos that go a little more into the weeds and get crunchy with the details on these subjects. Thank you for not over simplifying things!
Really liking these types of videos. Thank you
The thumbnail offered the question, "Why did we stand up?" Here's a few facetious answers, one of which you suggested:
Why do we stand?
1) To reason.
2) To be counted.
3) Because we're tired of sitting all the time.
4) To take our dogs for a walk.
5) In order to walk away from an annoying and inane conversation . . . .
Anyone else got some ideas to tack on here? I'd welcome any civil inputs . . . .
6) To dance!
No matter how many times I watch this channel I cannot decipher all the words in the theme music.
@WayneBraack - I think Ms Gibbon has it slowed down. Try speeding it up some; maybe it will help.
Most interesting. I learned some new things, one of which reinforces my own hypothesis. I had figured that gorillas and chimps had both split off from our common ancestral line, and did convergent evolution in similar environments, but hadn't heard any support for that. So thanks.
Really looking forward to that more in-depth video. I love learning from your videos.
Well that's an easy one to answer - we can't very well be quadrupeds if we've only got two legs, can we?
Pure logic.
We stood up so we could finally reach the waffle iron on that high shelf above the refrigerator.
Why we stood up is obvious.
Humans actually began mutual domestication with wolves/dog much, much, earlier than previously thought.
Because of our posture while quadrupedal, sniffy dogs tended to poke their _cold_ noses right into our warm, comfortable, sensitive spot.. Wheeeoooooo! Up we went..
The whole body of work of this woman is one of the best things that exists on UA-cam. What a treasure to find this, if you care about the world, humanity, things outside of yourself. What a beautiful data object to exist
The original fukawe tribe, who began by jumping up and down in the long Savanah grass shouting "wherethefuckarewe?"
Lily Tomlin: We have reason to believe that man first walked upright to free his hands for masturbation.
we got tired of our moms telling us to wash our hands
"suspensory clamoring locomotive style" - life goal
I will say this every friggin time I love the intro music. Great video as always. Stay amazing
I think the selective pressure to move full time to the ground would have been a combination of things. Primarily food pressure and competition for territory. At some point humans started eating grasses and we still do today. Rice, corn, wheat, barley etc. I doubt we suddenly realised we could eat that stuff when we invented farming. If we're eating the seeds of tall grasses, we probably want to be standing upright.
Actually we didn't eat any of that stuff until very recently (c. 10-15k years). Raw grass seeds will make you very sick if you try to eat them. It is only when they are soaked, sprouted, ground, cooked, and otherwise processed that they are even edible by us. What we started eating when we came down out of the trees is meat perhaps starting with carrion and later developing hunting.
@@robinbeers6689 and yet there are primates that live on grass. Our digestive systems have changed with our diets over the millions of years that have passed.
@@aikiwolfie We share a common ancestor with them. We are not descended from them.
@@robinbeers6689 indeed.
When did primates start eating grasses?
When did humans start eating grasses?
@@aikiwolfie Humans don't eat grasses. There are very few wild plants that are edible by us without cooking, mostly some roots and fruits. Most of the produce aisle at Whole Foods is stuff we created very recently. There is no such thing as wild broccoli. It is a human engineered derivative of the wild mustard plant as is the entire cruciferous section of the produce aisle. The fruits we have have been engineered to be more sugary and less fibrous (ever seen a wild banana?). The tubers have been engineered to be less fibrous and more starchy. Just in terms of calories, wild plants are not really worth gathering and eating unless you are seriously hungry. They were the plan B option if the hunt went badly.
So we can gather more and Faster precious Shiney Rocks for a Lazy Lord?
I like to think that the early bipedal hominins are like, "Because we just wanted to," while we're all trying to answer the Why question. I kinda likening to people trying to figure out why did ancient civilization or ancient group A build B, to me, because the folks that built B just wanted to.
One more comment, on the "traveling ape" hypothesis you presented.
While it does make sense on the surface, I have a big problem with accepting this scenario. Because of speed. In order for bipedal walking to have any meaningful energy savings over quadrupedal or knucklewalking motion, the distances traveled need to be quite big. So we require from an ape which is barely able to stand upright to spend hours upon hours walking the open ground? Then, when it finds this new food source, it reverts back to treedwelling?
It makes little sense to me. One would expect that the time spent out in the open, with no cover from predators and no means of escape should pressure such an ape towards speed, *not* energy efficiency. The remote source of food needs to be plentiful in order to be worth the travel at all, by definition. I don't see how small savings of bipedal walking could ever become crucial enough to be selected for.
Wading ape hypothesis solves all those problems, plus it explains plenty of other hominid features.
What are the odds we will ever be able to determine genomes for extinct species over 1M years back? Is it even possible? If they somehow got perma-frozen maybe instantly after death? Or any other way? Like Jurassic park where we find amber encased mosquitoes with DNA in their bellies? Or somehow once AI develops enough it may be able to reverse engineer based on the genomes of extant species that are descendants, if it has say multiple current descendants to examine to make a backwards projection? I know linguists do something similar to reconstruct parent languages when they have a collection of derivative languages. It gets harder the farther back you go obviously. But the more derivative languages a parent language has the more data they have to use to try to reconstruct it with.
Thank u for presenting this information in a clear and thoughtful way. It is a fascinating subject.
Why are humans bipedal? Obviously, being unipedal would look silly, pogo-ing around all the time, falling down a lot. Science has determined, however, that the male of the human species sometimes exhibit somewhat tripodal characteristics.
An adaptation that occured after the environment changed?
Also efficient for thermoregulation?
These make sense to me.
Also Pluto is still a planet in my heart.
I remember hearing Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson say that when Pluto was demoted, he got hate mail from 3rd graders.
I enjoy this type of presentation more than the debunking creationism.
I understand creationism is a pet peeve of yours, it’s just not something I think about
Gibbons have to be bipedal on land cuz quadrupedal locomotion, if possible, would to risky due to posture forcing their gaze to the ground. Cuz their arms are over twice the length of their legs
Please do an explanation on how we began cooking meat. I postulate that Harry fell in the fire, everyone said “damn, Harry smells good; let’s toss a pig in the fire”.
No speculation as to whether we nibbled on Harry.
@daver. - Ms Gibbon has a video on cooking.
No mention of any "Harry" or "Hairy", though.
I wonder if you have any thoughts regarding bipedalism and the reduced birth spacing found in humans along with the disappearance of a visible estrus cycle. Is it possible that having more offspring closer together would have given the lineage leading to modern humans a competitive advantage? It seems to me that females carrying multiple offspring would need either group assistance or the assistance of a reproductively vigiilant male to care for them.
Because it is better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
Motivational Mice - 1
Hypocrite Ducks - 0
the monogamous pair bonding idea is adorable, but being polyam it doesn't really sit right with me. Gathering resources for a mate/s doesn't necessarily mean monogamy - see bonobos
We are not only the only bipedal ape, we are also the only ape that can throw a rock accurately. Our shoulder needed to change from climbing and knuckle walking to a full rotation. If a group of primates learned to pelt a carcass with rocks to drive other scavengers away, that would create a feedback loop to make us better throwers as well as long distance walkers.
That is one change I really would like to know the pressures and actual changes of along the way. There are a whole host of mutations that would need to happen (and I am not sure if they have to be linear or if they could have been spread out.) For example: the socket is smaller in humans and the muscles are weaker in humans (not as much swinging from branch to branch). Could one ancestor have had the weaker rotator cuff, and another a moderately smaller socket, and then when their descendants mated they passed along both traits to the offspring and now you had a (comparatively) super thrower? Or was it one, then another a few generations later, and now great thrower?
@@bludfyre If more accurate throwing led to eating better, there would be genetic pressure rewarding it. In order for us to throw accurately, we need our solid bipedal stance. You don't need to be fully bipedal to throw something, but if you find a way to make a living by throwing things effectively, morphology will follow by building a better platform.
Agree.I wonder if advanced thought development was just as significant as learning to control fire in terms of dealing with larger toothy competitors.
So people tried to teach other apes how to throw stuff and they couldn't?
usually when I stand up it is to walk to the restroom or to the refrigerator!
sometimes I just want to flick off a theist face to face!
hooray for obligate bipeds!
my theory has always been that we invented ownership. this is my big stick and i'll hang onto it. oh, now i don't have my hands free. or carrying young even.
10:30 oh dear, this is really going to confuse the creationists, not only did we descend from apes, but now we descend from trees too, lol.
They say, well one specifically, that we believe we evolved from a rock... might as well throw in trees while we're at it!
Obviously we were ALL the real Slim Shady...
d'Uh!
I always assumed it was because our backs hurt being bent over all the time...
How you explain how arboreal aps becoming bipedal makes since to me at least. I mean look at orangutans they are sort of bipedal in the trees already.
Great content , you managed an impressive amount information and argument into 22.37 min . Liked and subscribed .
i am form east Africa Ethiopia the cradle of human kind i saw the fossil of lucy in the 5 kilo museum i am not a scientist but i believe in evolution
Gathering resources for a group guarantees bipedalism. Even the great Apes walk on two legs while carrying logs or engaging in combat.
Love your info, GG.
🇨🇦✌️👽 The Canalien.
Non-ape monkeys also walk bipedally when they're trying to carry a bunch of fruit at once
Personally I prefer the idea that a particular ancestor came down to the ground permanently is the first and biggest reason for going full upright. It makes sense when you think about it. Look at any tree bound ape and consider how the move along the ground. They're like ducks. Easily moving through their preferred environment. Then when you put them on land they are ungainly and awkward. Similarly an ape out of the trees almost bows when the walk. Legs back and head forward, their over land speed and stamina aren't especially great. Chimps are a great example. If they are able to use the full 3 dimensional space of their environment they truly are a force of nature. If you force them to stay on the ground though any number of feline hunters would be happy to put primate on the menu. I think our standing up had as much to do with more efficient food gathering as it did with getting away from predators. Even if I'm wrong, it's still closer to the truth then what any religion could come up with.
" ...moving around on all fours ". Thank goodness....Subtitles for us uneducated folks.;-)
Another great video, thanks! Do you have any videos specifically exploring the development of our human hands and more specifically the thumb and the unique abilities of our arms in general? It seems to me that we have a unique ability to throw accurately and I wonder if this may have started during the transition from living primarily in trees to spending more time on the ground, perhaps as a way to use teamwork to get food up into the trees which would be to cumbersome to climb with. The group gathers the food on the ground and carries it back the the trees where they make their home, some climb up and prepare to catch the food and others throw it up to them. I'm not educated on this subject so I don't know if there are any obvious flaws you might see in this idea but it seems to me that even with a less developed anatomy for throwing, a pair of apes could make this strategy work and improvements in anatomy for this purpose would surely be preserved.
I feel drawn to the hypothesiis that the throwing adaptation had to do with hunting. Using weapons at a distance makes it a lot less likely for the hunter to get injured, so ...
And of course, at the beginning of 2001 Space Odyssey idea that as soon as you learn to grab something, you can whack someone over the head with it.
@@monsterinhead214 I wish I were allowed to read the rest of your comment but it cuts off at "...less likely for the hunter to get injured, so..." and gives me no option to read more. As for the part I can see, I think that hunting further refined an ability to throw accurately but that, without some pre-existing ability to throw fairly accurately, there wouldn't have been enough to build on for hunting. A chimp can fashion and use a simple spear but you don't see them throwing spears for hunting, I think humanity's ability to throw things like spears was built on an ability to throw accurately developed for another purpose in which precision is useful but being somewhat accurate will be good enough. If you're throwing food to your friend in a tree, your friend won't run away if you miss.
@@danbrownellfuzzy3010 Or, for Expanse fans, you mgiht recognize the quote: "You give a monkey a stick, inevitably he'll beat another monkey to death with it."
I grew up countryside, spent years climbing trees, steep hillside, and dealing with dry heat coming off corn fields after summer harvest watching hawks ride a thermals.
I spent hours over the years learning to use a stick to walk like a chimpanzee, you develop lower back and leg muscles you never knew you had. For a guy bent over like a stripper did feel more than a bit silly, but for wrestling it did help build up lower body strength. One stick to maintain balance and a secondary stick for clubbing and short spear jabbing. The way I drag my feet looked more like I was skiing cross country on grass/dirt.
They are bipedal so they can carry whiskey bottles
I paused at about 2:35 to submit my hypothesis.
We started using tools and needed our hands to operate them.
There are some studies that suggest that primates are maybe more closely related to Lagomorpha(rabbits, hares and pikas) rather than to rodents. (A Molecular Phylogeny of Living Primates
Polina Perelman et al for example). But we also see early evidence of tree climbing in primates. Could it be that a lot of primates including apes were accustomed to hopping or standing on the ground before they were truly apes? Therefor both knucklewalk and bipedalism being `easier` to transition to in this option.
What you say here meshes nicely with what I wrote about the little-known bipeds among the lemurs (the indri, the avahi, and the sifakas) a few minutes ago: they get around on the ground and in the trees by hopping, making spectacular leaps from one tree to another. I went on to ask whether this may have been the path humans took towards bipedalism.
At the rate comments are being made these last few days, you should be able to find what I wrote easily by choosing "newest first" for a long time to come.
I think the savannah hypothesis makes sense, these early hominins needed to see over the tall grass to constantly survey their surroundings.
They were known as Homo wherethefuckarewe.
underrated comment
Today the savannah hypothesis has largely been rejected by the scientific community based on evidence showing bipedalism started in aboral forest apes.
I favour the, “ Run like hell,” model. Humans were pathetic little things very low on the food chain. They had to run fast to escape from those big animals with teeth.
Except early bipedalism was primitive, knuckle walkers faster, and bipedalism started in arboreal apes
why haven't you included the Dinosaur examples? They are a perfect example of convergence, just like Sharks, Dolphins and Ichthyosaurs? The nice thing is, unlike the Ichthyosaurs, there are living animals that are true bipeds, the Avian Dinosaurs. Heck, Penguins directly converged on a perfectly spine verticality that Humanids have.
Not convergence at all. They have a totally different way of bipedal walking.
Because if we only had one leg we'd fall over...
Cause we got two feet duhhhhhh 😜
I just want to say that the intro animation is amazing!
Your students, including us in the current audience, are SO lucky. Brilliant, superbly educated and able to clearly explain key subjects without getting down into the weeds.
Great hypothesis Erika. What observation or experiment would you propose to falsify it?
Because we moved from the Tropical Rainforest and an arboreal life - to the open savannahs - where there are fewer climbable trees. Bipedalism allows the carrying of weapons such as stones or wooden spears.
@planmet - Bipedalism also allows for the carrying home of a birthday cake. Or, pre-fire, birthday cake batter.
I am a little surprised that social hunting wasn't mentioned. Although bipedal motion is far from the fastest mode of transport in apes, its probably the fastest on the ground, and also allows quick acceleration and turning. Also if you are standing you get longer range of vision, which is important in what would by necessity be an ambush attack. The ability of groups of hominids to hunt together to catch larger prey is seemingly credited with the success and spread of the species, and fits in with the social nature of our ancestors. Perhaps I have got it all wrong because the development of group hunting is a much later thing.
Proponents of the "Savanna theory" have to explain why baboons are so successful moving on all fours.
To get to the other side.
Correction. We are NOT the only bipedal apes. We never knucklewalked. Look at gibbons who walk upright when terrestrial. Fight with fists, not teeth. Australopithecus was bipedal by convergence nesting between Pongo and Pan + Gorilla.
I thought it was because we were wading in water high on mushrooms?
I think you're a bit too dismissive of the aquatic influence. We have so many features that make us better suited to the water than any other primate that, It's undeniable that it was an important part of our lineage. Our style of swimming, although quite poor compared to truly aquatic animals, is far more efficient than any other ape. A large part of that is due to our different body plan. If we had the body plan of a knuckle walker, we would also have the very ineffective doggy paddle style of locomotion in the water. That's no way to make a living in the water.
So maybe the change in our body plan, due to the aquatic lifestyle, actually pushed us in the direction of bipedalism.
It was parental units telling their progeny to stand up straight.
the lack of dancing puns in this video is disappointing.
Fun fact: we actually became bipedal after the invention of shoes. They helped so much with protecting our feet that we could put more weight on them. Some cultures tried hand shoes but they restrict finger usage so that died out and here we are.
Pffft. We used to use fingers and toes and were twice as productive, but you finger pushers just had to have your shoes.
It's true! In fact, the automobile brake wasn't invented until 1895. Before this, someone had to remain in the car at all times, driving in circles until passengers returned from their errands.
@@firstnamelastname9918 I had a car like that once.
Germans, for example, still have Handschuhen.
@@archivist17 Sorry for nitpicking, but the plural of Handschuh (hand shoe) is "Handschuhe", without the "n"
I’ve always been a fan of the brachiating to standing hypothesis. Look at gibbons. They are bipedal on the ground. The brachiating body lends itself well to two-legged walking. Knuckle-walking to bipedalism seems more complicated. And maybe it’s knuckle walking that is the more useful adaptation; after all, it happened twice. Maybe going from brachiating to quadrupedal walking to bipedal walking is more complicated than going from brachiating to bipedal walking.
This continues to be my favorite intro on UA-cam!
In my opinion, carnivorism is the key to bipedalism. Carnivorism drives the use of tools. One cannot brachiate like a gorilla, while holding a flint handaxe.
Hey! Stop presuming we are very modern! That's very presumptious of you!
A good summary Gutsick, let down by one single process or factor: it would have taken a very strong factor to bring about bipedalism. Nowhere in your analysis do you reference such a factor. So.. you have a little way yet to arrive at a tenable hypothesis, and I will watch for your vids here to see what progress you make.