# Bipedalism 2 million years older than thought?



## littlemissattitude (Sep 15, 2004)

According to National Geographic, bipedalism may have first appeared in hominids two million years earlier than paleontologists had thought:



> Computer analysis of a fossil thigh bone indicates that a chimp-size human-like creature walked on two legs as early as six million years ago. Walking on two legs, known as bipedalism, is considered by scientists to be a distinguishing characteristic in what sets humans apart from apes.
> 
> Until now, the most widely accepted date for the advent of bipedalism was about four million years ago. That's when the hominids known as _Australopithecus anamensis,_ lived. Hominids include humans and extinct near humans.


You can find the entire article here.

If this turns out to be true, it should go a long way toward solving the problem of whether hominids developed intelligence because they could walk upright or walked upright because they developed intelligence.

One thing that I found very interesting in this article is that one scientist, Owen Lovejoy, has proposed the idea that bipedalism evolved as a reproductive strategy in that it allowed cooperative care and a division of labor. I don't know that I buy his theory, but it is an interesting approach.


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## Brian G Turner (Sep 15, 2004)

Nice article - now if only it would address the "Aquatic Ape" theory.


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