Essay On Bipedalism

The most characteristic physical features of a hominin is considered to be bipedalism and an upright posture. Humans, also referred to as hominins, differ from other hominids when comparing these features. It is the features that make us unique to other hominids. Bipedalism has gained hominins many advantages over quadrupedal hominids. The change of the skull in hominins is due to bipedalism and an upright posture which has made therefore helped hominins advance further than quadrupedal hominids. The adaption of bipedalism caused the skeleton of hominins to change in order to make bipedalism even more advantageous for hominins. An upright posture is one of the many changes that take effect and it generates other advantages for hominins as well.

Hominins are no longer dependent on their hands to walk. This could also then reduce their energy consumption as only their legs were used to walk. This could have helped a lot with carrying objects or it did not restrict or limit them to only using their hands while seated. The adaption of bipedalism in hominins could have also happened in order to make it easier for hominins to carry food which would be deemed as an important advantage. Wheeler (1991) points out that a major benefit of bipedalism, in relations to thermoregulatory advantages, was the reduction in direct radiation from the sun. He also mentions that other advantages could have been lower air temperatures as the distance from the ground would be greater and the body would experience higher wind speeds which would evaporate the sweat from the skin faster (Wheeler 1991). The ground absorbs heat from the sun and then radiates heat off the surface so if a hominin never adapted bipedalism then the hominin would become hot a lot faster and therefore they would become tired a lot sooner. Bipedalism helps a lot to retain a lower body temperature than non-bipedal