Essay On Sahelanthropus

When looking back on the evolution of man nothing stands out more than the word “bipedalism” this is what kicked us off the ledge to start us on the path of walking upright completely and gave us the dominated figure we all have today. Now let’s take it from the beginning the earliest forms of human beings used to climb tress and would walk on the ground, this use of flexibility allowed early humans to get around in such diverse habitats and also to be able to cope with the many changing climates (Smithsonian Museum). But something happened about 6 million years ago it is shown in the oldest evidence that the first of the earliest humans to become bipedal was known was, Sahelanthropus. It is said that being that Sahelanthropus could walk upright that this skill helped this species survive in the diverse habitats where they would like mostly including grasslands and also forests, this is just the tip of the iceberg as soon it will be noticed on how bipedalism is shown by how our body is and how our bones are structured hence the term “Written on our bodies” was coined. But how exactly is bipedalism represented from our bodies and how it important was for earliest form of man and how massively important it was for human evolution in general. (Smithsonian Museum) It all starts off with the leg support, it is shown that this thigh bone is still similar in size as other species of large apes but this is when we see that the angled parts are shown to exhibit some resemblance to those of modern humans. This angled part helped form a stronger bridge with the hip to help support the weight of the body. This use of leg support was shown in the species of Orrorin tugenensis which showed that they clearly had the capability to walk upright this taking place around 6 million years ago (Smithsonian Museum). Then around 4.1 million years ago it is shown upon our bodies on how much of importance our knees come into play Every time you take a step, you briefly stand on one leg—putting stress on your leg bones. when talking about constantly walking upright “Every time you take a step, you briefly stand on one leg—putting stress on your leg bones.” (Smithsonian Museum), this stress that is shown of fossils of bones of the species of Australopithecus anamensis in the area of bone below the knee shows very strong evidence that this type of individual would walk upright. By around 4 million years ago most early humans at that time where bipedal shown by fossils found that this time period came from species that lived in dense woods and mainly open areas, the body of these species had evolved in ways which it granted them the ability to be bipedal for most of the time but also have the ability to still climb tress this granted the species the ability to take advantage of both habitants in which they were surrounded by (Smithsonian Museum). What really made an impact when talking about how bipedalism is “written on the body” is about 2.5 million years ago when the introduction of the curved spine, the curvature of the spine is what takes all of the shock while you walk, …show more content…
Hip support came late around 1.95 million years ago with the size and also the broad shape of these hip bones of that of Homo erectus are very similar to those of modern humans, this shows that this early form of human species completely stopped climbing to take on full bipedalism as way of getting around. Its till 1.9 millions years ago that early specie of man became fully bipedal with the pelvic and also the thigh bones from the specie of Homo erectus are similar to those of modern humans, this showed that Homo erectus would be able to walk long distances. This ability aloud a very big advantage during this period in time. Then finally around 1.89 million years ago we see that Homo erectus had long thigh bones that allowed them to walks faster and great lengths than earlier humans (Smithsonian