The Earliest Bipedal Hominids: Taung Child & Neanderthals - Essay Sample

Introduction

Bipedalism involves walking upright on two legs (Wayman, 2012). This upright posture is the trait that separated the earliest hominids from other four-legged apes. The only known brainy species included Neanderthals and Homo erectus, which was what principally made them unique. However, this thinking changed in the early 20th century when Raymond Dart discovered a skull known as Taung Child in South Africa, which had a small brain but with characteristics of bipedalism.

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What are the Earliest Fossil Hominins That Show Bipedalism?

Taung Child was among the earliest hominid to show bipedalism because despite other characteristics that qualified it as an ape, one human-like feature known as the foramen magnum stood out (Wayman, 2012). As a sign that Taung maintained an erect head, the hole through which the spinal cord exits the head was more straightened forward under the skull as compared to that of other apes. Taung Child's smaller brain indicated that bipedalism started way much earlier before the development of bigger planes. More evidence of bipedalism was presented in 1947 with the findings of Lucy, who was a nearly complete australopithecine skeleton (Wayman, 2018). Although Lucy was smaller, she had broad pelvis and bones of the ties that elongated towards the knee; a clear sign of a biped. Lucy had her thigh bones straightened towards the knee, bringing the feet in line with the body's centre-of-gravity creating stability in the process of walking. Another biped was found in Kenya in 2000 that dated six million years back known as Orrorin Turgensis. Orrorin Turgensis had straight thigh bone that indicated bipedalism (Wayman, 2018). Australopithecus afarensis is one of the most commonly found evidence of bipedalism (Wong, 2003).

What Anatomical Features are Indicative of Bipedalism?

Most of the commonly used features to show bipedalism included hip knee and feet. In Tanzania, Australopithecus afarensis left behind a 27-foot on the volcanic layer of ash (Henninger, 2018). From these footsteps in Tanzania, it is evident that Australopithecus afarensis worked in an upright posture. The footprints of early bipeds suggested a slight border space between the hallux and other toes (Henninger, 2018). Another significant evidence of bipedalism is the bicondylar angle, which was as a result of a foramen magnum that is placed lower. There is also the presence of a reduced hallux with a higher arc on the food. These early bipedal also had a larger forehead diameter and longer formal neck length, slightly bigger and anteroposterior extended condyles of the femur. The lumbar vertebra in Austolopithecus was broad so that they could provide sufficient weight transmission from other upper parts of the body to the pelvis. Similar to the morphology of modern human, Australopithecus had five to six lumbar vertebra that articulated from a distinctive lumbar curvature. Their sacrum was relatively bigger and broader but lesser covered sacroiliac joints as compared to the ones in modern humans.

Did Australopiths Have a Toe More Similar To Humans or Apes? Give Your Reasoning.

Compared to the modern human, the toes of Australopiths were longer, in line with others and somehow curved. The big toes were somehow divergent and were used as a grasping toe. These long toes with grasping abilities indicated that they used trees to forage and advance from predators. However, the toes of bipeds such the ones found in Tanzania are relatively shorter than those of the ancient apes, and the hallux is intermediately adapted. Despite these differences, the foot of Australopithecus had a human-like arc. There exists a difference in toes of Australopithecus and human because the posture of Autrolopithecus demanded more support of weight from all the limbs and the pelvis structure as compared to a more upright position of human which led to an adaptation of shorter and more closed toes.

References

Henninger, S. (2018, August 7). Bipedalism & Human Origins - Physical Anthropology [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/00MYVe6lbyc

Wayman, E. (2012). Becoming human: The evolution of walking upright. Smithsonian. com.

Wong, K. (2003). Stranger in a new land. Scientific American, 289(5), 74-83.