Latest Bipedalism Stories

When, how and why modern humans first stood up and walked on two legs is considered to be one of the greatest missing links in our evolutionary history. Scientists have gone to the far ends of the earth – and the wonderful creatures in it - to look for answers to why we walk the way we walk. In the latest such search, researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (South Africa) have taken a closer look at bipedal kangaroos and wallabies and how they move compared...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Feeling like your feet are a little sore or you have a backache after a day of shopping or walking around town? Well, scientists now say you can blame that on evolution. Bruce Latimer, an anthropologist from the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine, says adapting to upright walking has resulted in physical challenges that affect most humans. "If an engineer were given the task to design the human body, he or...

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online [ Watch the Video: Meerkat Predator-Scanning Behaviour Is Altruistic ] In studying the behaviors of animals, biologists are often looking to see if a species exhibits more individualistic or collectivist tendencies in their typical habits. When foraging for food, meerkats often stand on their hind legs or climb to a perch in an attempt to scan for predators and, upon spotting a threat, the animals let out a series of warning...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Many researchers believe that one of the pivotal events in becoming human was the development of terrestrial bipedalism, or the ability to walk on two legs. Much has been made of our ancestors "coming down out of the trees." After all, the majority of our living primate relatives – for example, the great apes – still spend a great deal of their time in trees. In the primate family, humans are the only branch devoted to the ground,...

Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Before noted paleontologist and ichthyologist Edward Cope passed away in 1897, he had devised a theory that has, to this day, its proponents and detractors. His theory, known today as Cope’s Rule, stated that animals will, in their own voyage through the process of evolution, grow ever larger. This evolutionary trend has been noted across the animal kingdom. Researchers from the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) want to...

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, June 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --Australopithecus sediba, believed to be an early relative of modern-day humans, enjoyed a diet of leaves, fruits, nuts, and bark, which meant they probably lived in a more wooded environment than is generally thought, a surprising find published in the current issue of Nature magazine by an international team of researchers that includes a Texas A&M University anthropologist. (Logo:...

'Lucy' lived among close cousins A team of scientists has announced the discovery of a 3.4 million-year-old partial foot from the Woranso-Mille area of the Afar region of Ethiopia. The fossil foot did not belong to a member of "Lucy's" species, Australopithecus afarensis, the famous early human ancestor. Research on this new specimen indicates that more than one species of early human ancestor existed between 3 and 4 million years ago with different methods of locomotion. The analysis will...

The George Washington University's Brian Richmond and team of researchers say chimps use 2 legs to reach and carry scarce resources Most of us walk and carry items in our hands every day. These are seemingly simple activities that the majority of us don't question. But an international team of researchers, including Brian Richmond at the George Washington University, have discovered that human bipedalism, or walking upright, may have originated millions of years ago as an adaptation to...

Teaching a child to walk is difficult enough, but creating a robot that walks like humans is a completely different task. Hajime Research Institute in Osaka Japan is looking to build a 13 foot robot with a built in cockpit for humans. This robot will be the largest humanoid robot in the world and capable of bipedal walking. The company is building it as a possible alternative mode of transportation or whatever their customers need that entails a robot, according to the Hajime website....