The Seven-Million-Year-Long Journey - Why Humans Stood Upright ~ with JEREMY DESILVA

What caused the ancestors of human beings start walking upright? The seven-million-year-long-journey started in the trees of African and culminates in Homo sapiens dominance of the globe. But the answers to 'why' and 'when' are still elusive.
JEREMY DESILVA is an anthropologist at Dartmouth College. Jeremy ('Jerry') specializes in the locomotion of the first apes and early human ancestors. His most recent work focuses on the origins and evolution of upright walking in the human lineage.
In this Evolution Soup Special, host MARK talks with Jerry about the various theories relating to bipedality and specifically about recent hominid discoveries Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi.
#evolution #biped #humanevolution
00:00 START
00:46 A Paleoanthropologist in a Pandemic
02:16 Jerry's Background
06:50 Upright Walking Ancestors
15:22 Why Stand Upright?
23:20 Sediba & Naledi
38:12 Laetoli Footprints
46:29 Jerry's Fossil Wish List
51:33 Writing 'First Steps'
LINKS FOR JEREMY DESILVA:
SITE: anthropology.dartmouth.edu/pe...
TWITTER: @desilva_jerry
BOOK:
First Steps: How Walking Upright Made Us Human: amzn.to/3i6xZX6
SEE ALSO:
Dartmouth College:home.dartmouth.edu/
Dartmouth College flyover footage by Danny Katz (bit.ly/2RvDxj5)
Lee Berger's Fossil Vault KZbin: bit.ly/3zGJ4V8
Boston Science Museum: www.mos.org/
Interviews powered by streamyard.com/
#evolutionsoup #evolution #paleo #paleontology #paleoartist #Homosapiens #hominid #artwork #Darwin #cave #bone #fossils #Neanderthal #australopithecus #hominin #extinct #animals #science #anthropology #paleoanthropology #genus #species #africa #skull #skulls #naturalselection #lucy #paleontology
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In association with Talk Beliefs KZbin Channel: bit.ly/2lA6YOv
DISCLAIMER:
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
Creative Commons.

[@teaburg]

If you think about how teenagers know it all, but adults discover as they get older that there is so much they don't know. Figuring out how hominin/hominid species evolved is similar. Was a time we thought we understood it. But now? There is so much more to still discover. We've passed our teenage understanding and now in the adult stage of learning.

[@scottpope4711]

I know exactly where humans come from! And scientists cannot prove otherwise. And if you look mitochondrial DNA throughout the whole world which does not get diluted through the generations, there are only three different sets.

[@sproutsrevil6508]

Learning as an adult is done with curiosity and passion.

[@lewisjohnson8297]

​@@sproutsrevil6508, so is childhood learning! Schooling gives the false impression of having "collected" knowledge. Before that, the concentration is on "how to". How to recognize, through the senses. How to more efficiently move. How to manipulate. How to combine these things into predictions. How to theorize and test. How to combine the results of multiple sensory inputs to enhance safety. Those are all examples of learning, that take place largely without a sense of competition. "How much" becomes an issue much later and with urging.

[@patricknoveski6409]

​@@lewisjohnson8297Thank you. Agreed.

[@margaretr5701]

We could still be in our infancy of knowledge, despite knowing so much more than even a couple of decades ago. It's a fascinating journey.

[@Video2Webb]

God how I loved this interview! The scientist is completely lovable - cannot find anything that jarred with me. I have bought the Kindle edition even before the video ended and subscribed to this very thoughtful and enlightening YT Channel. My deep thanks to both of you....Now to dream imaginatively about how it felt to be upright in a wold where everyone else was on four legs...I know that it felt good, it felt empowering, the animals grew in confidence in every way...Yes, bipedalism was the birth of the human being. It is utterly awesome!

[@theitineranthistorian2024]

at first consideration walking around is not given much thought, we take it for granted. thoughtful appreciation is much deserved.

[@thekriks]

the idea that walking and standing upright then frees the arms and hands to carry food, wood and other resources back to a sheltered area makes a lot of sense to me as a strong survival and, therefore, evolutionary advantage.

[@oker59]

I lived in the Washington D.C. area in the early 1980s. And, we took the bus/trolley into the Washington D.C. square(I don't know what they call it) . . . like 95% of the two years we lived there. I loved the Lincoln memorial. I ran around it; but, my favorite place had to be the smithsonian - not the capital building or the White House. I thought those were boring actually. I remember, at the time, the first thing you saw when going into the Smithsonian was a cast of the laetoli footprints. - Later, I lived in .W.S.M.R. New Mexico. And, I remember seeing "Dawn of Man" a Louis Leakey documentary, which is still up on youtube. I remember it was dark time and I was alone. I remember the beginning of the show with the shadowy figure running down the hill, and the narrator talking about a scavenger. I've always had an interest in all of paleontology - from Dinosaurs to the beginnings of Mankind. I took a Physical Anthropology class before going into the Navy around 1995. I thought I got a D; but, when I went into the councilors to sign for my two year degree, they said I can get an associates of Science, and, when looking at the classes I took, I noticed I actually got an A in the Anthropology class. Later, I read Donald Johansson's Lucy. And, now, on the internet, I keep track of the latest finds about Australopithacines, Homo Erectus and so on!

[@michaelking9818]

Should visit Great Britain and see some of your museums and zoological gardens.

[@seankennedy4378]

Just came across 'Evolution Soup' a few months ago - such gr8 informative presentations

[@big1dog23]

So glad I "discovered" your channel!.

[@SandraBonney]

To be able to see better, to view the terrain, scan for danger or hunt. To be upright is to have more information about your environment

[@lambeausouth1]

By far my most favorite channel! Love the one on one with scientists who work the field!

[@mitseraffej5812]

7 million years sounds like a long time but is an infinitely small blip in eternity.

[@sarahchristine2345]

Incredible presentation. Thank you

[@andrewdegeorge9649]

Great interview! I enthusiasticaly enjoy this kind of information and conversation.

[@cherylhall4830]

Superb presentation. Eloquent passionate about his work and a fabulous depth of knowledge. Will buy his book immediately.

[@sherrellrichmond4307]

I read his book and it is enlightening.

[@conner13.c16]

A few months ago I listened to a lecture from CARTA about natural refugees in Africa and their importance in repopulating the rest of the continent after a shift in conditions. It happened with the quagga and the wilderbeast, maybe it also happened with naledi and that is why we see such ancient traits in so recent times.

[@davidsmith-uw2ci]

Real Science is one of the most honest things out there, we have no problem saying IDK but lets find out. And as new information comes in if your honest you take it in and change what you previously believed or thought you knew. Can't say the same thing about believers/creationists.

[@longcastle4863]

Thumbs up interview

[@brendacooper5729]

When you look at the differences between humans and our cousins, bipedalism is not the only one, and I suspect not the first one. Our babies today still have the ability to cling to their mother's hair and they do not let go. I suspect that what inspired hominids to exchange rapid progress for upright hobbling was the loss of fur for the infants to cling to. The early walkers had to have been easy prey for predators and the ones with advantageous bone mutations would have survived to reproduce. The first walkers were likely hairless females trying to carry their infants to safety. The shortage of fur to cling to may have encouraged hominids down from the trees as well, navigating canopies must have been awkward while holding a child, and falls would have been fatal. It would be interesting if anyone actually studied DNA mutation rates to try and guesstimate just how long ago we lost our fur If a starving baboon mother will stand up and shuffle on two legs to carry an infant too weak to cling I'm sure our balding ancestral mothers would have sacrificed speed and agility for the ability to carry their child. As the bone structure adapted and it became easier to walk upright hands were used for other things previously impossible, such as carrying tools and weapons. Many other creatures manufacture tools but have to leave them as they move on to other feeding areas, proto humans got to take their stuff with them.

[@flugschulerfluglehrer7139]

Knuckle walking is one of these adaptive forms of upright walking. The common ancestor was an upright walker. The point is, there are different forms of upright walking

[@anialiandr]

I watch everything and this was a fantastic summary of our evolution

[@hypsyzygy506]

Some groups of monkeys are known to use stones to crack nuts. Birds use stones to crack open snails and tortoises. Such tools are unlikely to be recognised as tools by palaeontologists. Twigs and other wooden tools are unlikely to fossilise at all, or would be used as fuel for a fire when broken, so that would be another gap in the record.

[@xianseah4847]

Birds use leaves to clean the inside of their beaks.

[@indricotherium4802]

I would bet that the strongest driving force for bipedalism was throwing and the increasing advantage of hand-eye co-ordination for longer, better balanced and more accurate throwing.

[@spatrk6634]

i imagine just standing up to see bit further away is pretty huge when you are surrounded by predators that can pounce at you from behind a bush i think that throwing comes after we already stood up.

[@MarcSmith23]

If you can throw rocks accurately, no predator could get near a group of rock-armed hominids coordinating their throws.

[@indricotherium4802]

@@spatrk6634 : many potential prey species, including primates, do stand on their hind legs for temporary surveillance. Why haven't they evolved bipedalism? What we can observe is that none of these species have anything that gets close to the efficiency of a human throwing action. From the planting of the feet to the revolution of the shoulder and everything in between - generating the torque and coordinating the weight transfer - makes the powerful and accurate human throwing action possible. Once you have this ability, even the fiercest carnivores and biggest herbivores have no defence, except to run away. It's quite feasible that the earliest ancestors on the hominin line combined temporary bipedal surveillance with what started as a primitive, partially effective throwing defence. Uprightness and better throwing would have needed to develop in synchrony, not sequentially.

[@indricotherium4802]

@@MarcSmith23 : expanding on your point, many potential prey species, including primates, stand on their hind legs for temporary surveillance but haven't evolved bipedalism. What we also observe is that none of these species have anything that gets close to the efficiency of a human throwing action. From the planting of the feet to the revolution of the shoulder and everything in between - generating the torque and regulating the weight transfer - all makes the powerful and accurate human throwing action possible. With this ability, even the fiercest carnivores' and biggest herbivores' best available defence is to run. I'd argue it's quite feasible that the earliest ancestors on the hominin line combined temporary bipedal surveillance with what started as a primitive, partially effective throwing defence. Uprightness and better throwing had to develop in synchrony. The complex human throwing action is far too 'inbuilt' to have arisen sequentially, as a side benefit or as an afterthought.

[@jonathancummings6400]

​@indricotherium4802 I agree. It might have been a MAJOR evolutionary factor. It's entirely possible that the proto Chimp/Human common ancestor divided due to a behavioral difference, the ones who threw things at threats more readily and effectively were on the path to us. Maybe the improved bipedalism and throwing ability evolved together because those mutant individuals that could discourage predators and kill small prey with their throwing ability possessed a talent that enhanced their ability to survive.

[@geoffreyhalverson1787]

I'm reading DeSilva's book off of this interview. It's a great and easy read. He makes a case for rethinking our upright posture and walking. It's also peppered with how we should practice the scientific method. Please, everybody... read this book!

[@paulopavel5184]

How about stand to walk on shallow lakes or in extended flood land

[@bowiedoctor9156]

Fascinating - some great insights.

[@Jammin6796]

reasons for standing= noise,, hear something hunting you standing would reveal sooner.. sight distance,,, walking upright would lengthen your sight distance and you would not walk into trouble as much.. food,,, standing to get food is easier than climbing trees and edging out to small branches and possibly falling(injury) ,, so standing to get food on the end of low hanging branches... size aggression,, we all know that flexing size in the animal kingdom is one of the main exercises to repel attackers.. standing(walking) requires less energy for long distance or long time movement.. there cant be just one reason for standing.. all of these reasons combined created "walkers" what other reasons would there be?? bones(fossils) will not tell "why" we stood up...

[@holdthetruthhostage]

I'm telling learning about the fact that we are not the first to walk or do anything changes everything, as it removes that illusion that we are the beginning & end

[@SweetBugaloo]

Amazing❤️

[@MylesFCorcoran]

For animals to forage at coast lines - salt or fresh - there are real advantages to being able to walk upright.

[@kenfalloon3186]

Could it be that bipedalism was way of spotting aerial predators which would be an issue in savannah habitats

[@Redpepper917]

Humans began to stand on two legs for reaching food. Then humans continued to stand for longer periods for aggressive purposes. It enabled men to be effective in fights and hunting. Bears stand up on two legs to fight. Some dogsand other animals do the same. Apes, like gorillas and chimpanzees stand up to fight. But unlike others, humans stayed on two legs to hunt. Although being bipedal made man slow, it gave him stamina (as mentioned in the video, bipedalism allows conservation of energy) to stalk the prey until it became exhausted. When the prey stopped running, Bipedal humans were able to use their arms and hands to throw rocks, sticks and spears at the prey. Standing on two legs allow an animal to see higher through and above the brush. See how people run marathons today.

[@caseyjude5472]

Another great interview, thank you! I LOVE The Fossil Vault and have been watching & waiting with eager anticipation the discovery of that new hominid. Or maybe not “new”? It’s very exciting but so slow-going since the fossils are in breccia, not lying on the floor of a cave like Naledi. And also because of the pandemic. The more we learn about our ancestors, the more I become convinced that the “Sasquatch” sightings reported by people could very well be genuine. The foot prints(that show a “flat foot”) the dermal ridges in both foot & handprints and the people that have everything to lose & nothing to gain yet they come forward anyway… I’m not 💯 convinced, but I become more convinced over time. I do realize the typical responses to saying anything serious about a Sasquatch-type being include everything from eye rolling to outright hostility, especially on a “serious” channel. I’ve wanted to comment about it before but haven’t. This interview made me recall the stories of some witnesses where they say the creature they saw “glided” or it looked like it was on rollerblades. It walked on two legs but not like us. I’m not trying to convince anyone else, I’ve got no skin in this game. I just wanted to share.

[@lindakautzman7388]

You got me interested.

[@MylesFCorcoran]

Thank you for your courage. I get what you mean. While I would be truly surprised should any evidence at all of living non sapiens sapiens exist now or within the past few hindered years I have, for many years, believed that, at least,such ideas are what I think of as genetic memory. Our ancestors, no doubt, shared the planet with other types of humans. We know this. I know, epigenetic ideas are not proven yet my grandchildren are afraid of things they have never seen before which are good to avoid.

[@kevingilchrist5920]

I much enjoyed this video, even though a year late. Loved hearing a scientist not pounding their fist saying “this is the way it was”. I’m old enough to hear the adage: “Science progresses one funeral at a time.”

[@mliittsc63]

Upright walking allows the hands to use a spear. This allows defense against predators. A group of bipedal apes with spears is too dangerous to attack. A lion pride could probably grab one the apes, but they are going to get hurt. To avoid predation you just have to make yourself less attractive than other prey. Screaming apes with sharp sticks are probably not going to be a preferred target.

[@patricknoveski6409]

This was well done guys. I just love all the new discoveries, and thinking about these creatures long ago buring their dead in a cave by a fire. Writing on a wall. Who were they? Intriguing, amazing. Thank you .

[@kaarlimakela3413]

I recall a movie from the 70s called 'Quest for Fire'. Although you may well quibble with the timeline inferred in the movie, fair enough. Still. It was the first time it struck me how many hominid versions were scrambling around all at the same time. Parental Guidance. Starred Rae Dawn Chong.

[@verasmith4767]

To see around better. Just think about it... Walking in open spaces, walking upright would help Also frees up you hands.

[@thomaszaccone3960]

Why did theropod Dinosaurs become bipedal? The fastest a human today can run is 28 mph. What about a very much smaller biped ancestor? Could a smaller biped move faster than a quadruped of the same size?

[@lindakautzman7388]

This is why I read comments..good questions about the 🦕.

[@LDrosophila]

Great question I wonder if the Triassic environment put the same pressures on those archosaurs

[@thomaszaccone3960]

@@LDrosophila There is a group of very cute southwestern predatory little lizards - Crotaphytus - which run on two rear feet when they get going. Might be an interesting model to study.

[@ArleneDKatz]

Thank you. I work in a museum too

[@kelliepatrick519]

I'm sure he's right that there were actually multiple benefits to bipedialism that drove natural selection.

[@kaarlimakela3413]

Currently, this wonderful information might not be legal in Florida. 😮 🤐

[@MrTwostring]

That's a good question, Mark. ? That's a good question mark.

[@catsthinkmynameisclaude6955]

Right? Caught that.😅👍😉

[@christienjanson6530]

That beautiful drawing of the human evolution tree! I want that! Does anyone know if I could buy it somewhere?

[@edsmith9846]

The very first time, as a child, I stood up my first thought was to sit down. So why all this fuss about why humans walk instead of sitting on a seat of a vehicle and using that vehicle to carry me wherever I want to go. Makes sense to me. 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

[@jazziejim]

The guy who wrote the book "Born to Run" posits that humans could run down game on two legs and use less energy during a long chase (and transpire better to avoid overheating). He proves this on hunts and interviews with pre-industrial African native hunter gatherer people.

[@Aluminata]

It left their hands free to scratch their asses.

[@donna4843]

The area of the early ancestors of is in the rift area of Africa. Maybe earthquakes shook them out of the trees and on to their feet? Maybe knuckle walkers felt safer closer to the ground? nah.

[@Barbreck1]

Here's a hypothesis which can be tested: Could a series of devastating forest fires, or droughts, have deforested our landscape so dramatically that it forced our ancestors out of tree-dwelling and into open grasslands where bipedalism was necessary to hunt for food and/or spot predators? This could be tested by correlating a major deforestation with bipedalism.

[@robinbeers6689]

Could also have been a major volcanic eruption. Also, during ice ages, the equatorial regions of the globe would be much drier with most of the water in the world caught up in glaciers.

[@MylesFCorcoran]

The loss of forests does not lead to bipedalism as far as I know. It certainly didn’t occur in any of the other species who live in the plains.

[@robinbeers6689]

@@MylesFCorcoran Not necessarily but, if a species were already capable of some bipedalism, needing to go out onto the grasslands to forage and needing front paws to carry back what was found, bipedalism would be a survival advantage.

[@Barbreck1]

@@MylesFCorcoran How many other tree-dwelling species were in that region and forced to adapt to the sudden change of environment? Not many I'd wager! And, whose to say they didn't for a while but then re-adapted to quadropedalism when the climate dried and the grasses became shorter? My post was to suggest research in this area, not assert that it WAS so!

[@MylesFCorcoran]

@@Barbreck1 Thanks for you reply. Your original comment stated up front that you were floating a hypothesis. I did not assert that you were make a claim of truth. For my part I found your hypothesis interesting and would like to se the results should your suggested test be done. I was just saying, in essence: there’s that and maybe this too.

[@leonstevens1382]

Ostriches, emus, penguins and kangaroos are bipedal. We are not alone.

[@syedalishanzaidi1]

How about mutation as opposed to mere environmental pressures to explain the emergence of bipedalism in humans? Once events of mutation in the body [followed by adaptation and natural selection] triggered changes in the human anatomy, such as the gradual straightening of the spine, bipedalism in humans as we see it today would eventually have emerged. Does this make sense?

[@Grungy1]

Good interview. And my wish list fossils would be. A "Lucy " mummy. With preserved soft tissue like that one dinosaur mummy fossil. Or like the impression of feathers. Wild dream is an early homo in something like amber. But that is just being silly.

[@Psalm1101]

Yes it'more different amazing them we thought like all science

[@davidwischer3684]

I loved this subject and Jeremy has so much knowledge and experience. The only suggestion is to improve his delivery (fluency) is to give up being a ‘you knower’(fat to many YK’s or easy listening

[@Rico-Suave_]

Watched all of it 54:44

[@tassia1954]

You are so intelligent and I enjoed your video very much I just wanted to say that the word ror homo in Greek (but I suppose you know that)is anthropos Άνθρωπος etymological means άνω=up θρώσκω =look so he who looks up Thank you

[@samreh6156]

Excellent interview! I've read his book, too. Interesting read.

[@Psalm1101]

Good scientist like the ferma paradox or why we don't live with a red dwarf star when 80percent of all stars are little dangerous red or mdwarfs

[@codynicholas2275]

Does it bother anyone else how Mark pronounces eee-volution? Otherwise I love this show haha

[@mushtaqbhat1895]

Seems we may have to amend our preconceptions about almost all hominids, they way we did concerning our cousins and partial ancestors the Neanderthals, after hearing about these new not unfounded conclusions regarding Australopithecus!

[@davidfiler7439]

Neanderthals are not our ancestors.

[@hypsyzygy506]

Even lemurs have some bipedal behaviour, so it must be a very ancient primate ability.

[@robertlevy2420]

Science seems to be an imperfect tool! Not arguing for alternatives. Why does the universe have to be understandable using any techniques we can develop? The requirement of a testable hypothesis for any theory might be like looking for your dropped key under a streetlamp even though you dropped it far away in the middle of the street!!!!! The Universe is not obligated to give answers!!! Are we just line fitting in Anthropology? Is it all mostly just a random "walk"?

[@garymacmillan]

I figure it was the apples. They never noticed the apples and then the serpent hissed real loud and they looked up and thought those apples look yummy. I've been listening for decades now and still find no reason in evolutionary theory. We needed to get upright and taller so we did. We needed to make tools so our hands grew more human. etc etc We are still at the beginning. Genetic mutation/change is still a mystery.

[@kimshaw-williams]

We became bipedal through wading, as David Attenborough has suggested....also wading out into the water would be a good way to escape from lions.

[@katkit4281]

No evidence supporting that at all. Do you have any?

[@kimshaw-williams]

Yes you ignorant person, you! The only situation extant apes spend anytime whatsoever in the bipedal stance is when wading@@katkit4281

[@casiandsouza7031]

Bipedalism conserves energy for endurance and brain. Can the stronger muscle of apes repeat action as long as human muscle?

[@Growmetheus]

Humans: “hmm… water on ground…” Also humans: *drinks upward*

[@Aluminata]

Who says they ran from predators? Humans became who we are by acting in concert and being the most vicious creature on the planet.

[@caseyjude5472]

The bones that have been gnawed on by predators indicate hominids were prey. Plenty have been found, and tooth marks matched up to multiple predators. They probably saw predators chasing & eating prey, so it’s not like they thought, ‘oh, big Kitty just wants to play’. Thus, they probably didn’t want to be prey & likely tried to run away. No prey just stands there. Some prey do fight back, but they don’t win every time.

[@michaelking9818]

Never came across a Pygmy shrew now that’s vicious

[@kimshaw-williams]

Why doesn't he mention the Trachilos footprints found on Crete in 6Ma deposits by Gierlinski et al 2018?

[@kimshaw-williams]

I made these comments many months ago...obviously it was a waste of my time, energy, and interest. I will not bother anymore.

[@Naturalook]

Trench coat hypothesis is supported by the "Unusually large" genitalia and glands on those of us that strut-walk.😁

[@jamesbarry1673]

I thought we became human when we signed the first mortgage agreement lol

[@billyratchet6463]

What if they always walked upright and other primates evolved into walking on all fours?

[@paulopavel5184]

If ancestors 7 million years walked in flood land to go from one tree to another, they will not need so strong joints as in the waters the knees and rips joints are not so much requested

[@user-ny7tn4qs9i]

Maybe started out on two leggs then some moved to the trees no one knos not ou😢 of Africa also they just can't be wrong now huh😊

[@OldEarthWisdom]

What makes them so sure these creatures are related to humans?

[@margaretr5701]

DNA

[@rasmokey4]

Running from a lion gives a good reason to be upright!

[@francissantos7448]

If that was true for survival, there should be a creature descended from primates that can run like antelopes.

[@markward3981]

No walking upright is only more efficient across long distance. Quadraped with climbing ability would have been a better escape from fast , flexible predators. Also walking upright and loosing hair makes primates an easier more visible target for predators.

[@brettkuhn5047]

He said running on two legs is half as fast as on 4

[@LDrosophila]

That's interesting that the chimpanzee fossil record is spottier than humans.

[@GHST995]

Free your mind.

[@AdeebaZamaan]

Don't give those 3D prints to the British Museum or we could have Piltdown all over again!

[@indrekkpringi]

Duh: I knew that over 30 years ago.

[@samreh6156]

Not all humans have well expressed or formed arches. Consequently, we must no all walk or run the same.

[@margaretr5701]

Yes, high arches and flat feet exist.

[@kimshaw-williams]

The reason you haven't got any fossils of chimpanzees is they did not exist until 3/4 the way through the Pleistocene, and same for gorillas

[@codynicholas2275]

Mr Desilva, you are welcome to come test the trench coat hypothesis on me 🤤

[@larsedik]

I hope that Jeremy will become more like Richard Leakey in the future and develop his writing style accordingly. I really do not want to read about his horrible driving skills on I-95, when my interest instead is on hominid development. I very much dislike anyone who drives while distracted - it is not amusing.

[@danmaster9183]

They stood because the dont want to get their hands wet just like a chimp would have done at that moment...

[@KenSoHappyClegg]

Here's a new idea. What if the earliest hominids (say 4, 5, maybe 10 million years ago) were all bipedal all along from Day 1? But we were so violent and deadly due to our bipedalness allowing for handheld weapons to be swung with greater force, we drove all the other primate groups of great apes' ancestry up into the trees for protection where they developed hands and feet for climbing. It's difficult to climb a tree and carry a rock at the same time and we're still working on improving the solutions to that problem to this day. Hominins didnt come down from the trees, we drove the hominids up into the trees.

[@brettkuhn5047]

We have fossils, remember

[@KenSoHappyClegg]

@@brettkuhn5047 no we dont, show me those fossils. We have twelve fragments of foot bones that range between 4 million and 12 million years ago, thats it. The oldest human-like foot bones are from a bipedal ape who lived in Europe nearly 12 million years ago, Danuvius Guggenmosi, go educate yourself. The fossil evidence is so lacking it can be interpreted either way. Bipedal hominins came first and hominid knuckle-walkers second is easily as likely as not.

[@samreh6156]

The question is why did knuckle walking evolve.

[@robyncarter5135]

This guy is the professor we all wished we would have gotten rather than the dry old sticks we got stuck with.

[@raphmaster23]

Shoot i had the same 9th grade biology teacher my mom had, she was born in 1952, and i was born in 1984. It was wild she was baffled he was still teaching lol

[@margaretr5701]

@@raphmaster23 So, the teacher was in their 50's or 60's by the time you were in 9th grade? Continuity is nice to hear. I hope the teacher remembered your mother.

[@raphmaster23]

@@margaretr5701 that's a good question, I know my mom remembered him, he was an older fella but definitely no dried old stick 🙂

[@margaretr5701]

@@raphmaster23 Good! Not a very nice term, 'dry old stick'! If I were a teacher, I'd like the idea of teaching two generations.

[@samreh6156]

We had no knuckle walking ancestors. Our ancestors were moving about on two legs, albeit in the trees.

[@sarahchristine2345]

This is pure speculation, but I wonder if caring for the sick and injured may have evolved out of necessity. If the climate was causing rapid changes to the environment & our earliest ancestors were forced to travel further distances to find alternate food sources, I imagine many would die between destinations. And as the numbers of these groups got smaller & smaller, so did the number of available mates. Previously large arboreal communities may have dwindled to only a few members in these traveling groups. Hence when a group member became injured, they began to stay with (and care for) the injured comrade to maintain their numbers and thereby their safety. Perhaps smaller communities also led to greater individual attachment between members and stronger social bonds. Of course we have no way of knowing how the many extinct species of ancient apes behaved and therefore can’t say with any certainty that other apes didn’t also exhibit similar altruistic behaviors. What we do know is that major environmental changes (or other unknown circumstances) must have motivated our ancestors to leave our ape relatives and the safety of the trees behind. I’m incredibly fascinated by the reproductive capacity of these primates. Through DNA, we know that a great deal of interbreeding took place between our ape ancestors. Gorilla DNA was introduced into the chimp lineage on multiple occasions over millions of years. And we know that modern humans interbred with early humans, as did various species of hominins. Even species separated for millions of years can successfully reproduce, as seen in chimps & bonobos. I think this is important because 1.) introducing new genes would have lead to more diverse populations & 2.) some of these competing genetic traits could have been a factor in our split with the chimp lineage in the first place imo. Apes are social creatures capable of learning and copying behavior. Even though chimps & bonobos look very similar, once bonobos got separated by the formation of the Congo River, their social structure and behavior changed dramatically. Therefore, I don’t think commingling between different species can be completely ruled out as a factor for our split. Perhaps the introduction of Gorilla DNA, believed to have occurred approx 6 million years ago, provides us with a clue? Given that chimps & gorillas share some common characteristics (quadrupeds, large canines, sexual dimorphic, aggressive, patriarchal, knuckle walkers, etc) & are known to have interbred, I don’t think it’s that far fetched to wonder if some chimp behavior/characteristics may have been influenced by gorilla behavior (and til this day these two species coexist and interact in the wild). The stark social differences between chimps & bonobos could support this hypothesis. Perhaps our earliest ancestors left (or were exiled) to escape an increasingly aggressive society. We know that early hominins had smaller canines (usually associated with male aggression) than our ape relatives. Even Sahelanthropus had smaller canines at approx 7 million years old. If our earliest ancestors were already bipedal while living in trees and had smaller canines than our other closest ancestors, is it possible that some of the characteristics we associate with being more “ape like” may be more specific to other species of apes, such as Gorillas, introduced by intermingling or interbreeding, and not our bipedal tree dwelling ancestors? Maybe chimps adopted those behaviors and slowly evolved into quadrupeds over time? Perhaps the slimmer builds, longer legs and greater bipedal capabilities of bonobos were characteristics they retained from a bipedal ancestor?

[@samreh6156]

If you wear off the heal of your shoe soles on the outer edge, you walk a little bit like Australopithecus Sediba. I walk like this but have no orthopedic problems.

[@vesuvandoppelganger]

Humans have stood upright ever since they were created.

[@jaymz1999]

I’m pretty sure you crawled before you walked.

[@markshort9098]

It takes a special kind of ignorance to watch this video and still think your created by magic

[@vesuvandoppelganger]

Where in the video did he prove that humans weren't created by magic?

[@markshort9098]

@@vesuvandoppelganger um all of it.. evolution is proven beyond any doubt.. there was more than enough evidence in this video alone to prove humans evolved and this video only showed a miniscule amount of the evidence that supports evolution.. there is zero evidence for god or gods other than nuh arrr and faith aka i believe because i want to believe regardless of evidence.. cretards always used to say show me an ape man fossil and now that we have all these fossils the showing hominid evolution the cretards just go nuh arr and proclaim that they are all either just an ape or just a human which is ridiclous in itself because humans are still apes.. the anatomy of thousands of hominid fossils prove evolution, DNA proves evolution, endogenous retroviruses prove evolution and saying that all that evidence is wrong is ignorance of the highest order.. on top of all the evidence that humans evolved we also have all that evidence for other anmials evolving too, no immoral magic man needed

[@vesuvandoppelganger]

"evolution is proven beyond any doubt" That is a lie. "there was more than enough evidence in this video alone to prove humans evolved" That is a lie. "there is zero evidence for god or gods other than faith aka I believe because I want to believe regardless of evidence." That is completely wrong. All of the evidence points to the fact that humans were created by an unobservable genius. 3.1 billion nucleotide bases that is the instructions for changing a zygote into an adult human being must have come from the mind of a genius. The fact that randomly changing the nucleotide base sequence in the genome of an animal will only produce garbage and won't slowly transform that animal into a new and different animal proves that humans didn't evolve into existence. "DNA proves evolution." Wrong again. DNA testing can determine relatedness between people because genetic information is passed from parents to offspring. However, there is no genetic information being passed between species. So using genomic similarities between species to determine relatedness is based upon erroneous, illogical, and fallacious reasoning. Are you smart enough to think up a sequence of A's, C's, G's, and T's that will convert the zygote of an animal into its adult form? Of course not. Genomes were written by a genius with an IQ of about 1,000,000,000. "endogenous retroviruses prove evolution." Wrong again. Chimpanzees and humans share almost all of the same ERVs at the same locations in the genome. Since humans and chimpanzees were created separately from each other and viruses insert themselves into random locations in the genome, if ERVs are from viruses the probability that they would land that way is 0, therefore ERVs are not from viruses.

[@johnjude2685]

God made human,.....

[@larryparis925]

Hahahaha! Yeh, right. Get a life.

[@samreh6156]

Humans made god(desse)s