Why do we walk upright?

Discussion in 'Biology & Genetics' started by Oniw17, Feb 21, 2007.

  1. Oniw17 ascetic, sage, diogenes, bum? Valued Senior Member

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    I believe we are the only great apes with long legs and short arms. I am told this is because we walk upright. So why do we walk upright?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 21, 2007
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  3. John99 Banned Banned

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    simple, so we dont get rug burns?
     
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  5. Oniw17 ascetic, sage, diogenes, bum? Valued Senior Member

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    I wrote walked in the title. Can someone fix that for me?
     
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  7. Blindman Valued Senior Member

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    Because it is the most energy efficient transport method. We can move over mountains because of it. We still sit on the same muscles as all the other animals
     
  8. redarmy11 Registered Senior Member

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    To reach the fruit on the higher branches. It's the same reason we have 5-foot necks, like a giraffe's.
     
  9. spuriousmonkey Banned Banned

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    mod statement: I don't seem to be able to change the title. I will ask advice from the administrator.
     
  10. madanthonywayne Morning in America Registered Senior Member

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    To free up our upper limbs to use tools.
     
  11. redarmy11 Registered Senior Member

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    Back to moderator school for you, Sonny Jim.
     
  12. spuriousmonkey Banned Banned

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    I just graduated.
     
  13. redarmy11 Registered Senior Member

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  14. orcot Valued Senior Member

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    I tought I heared that humans walked upright because they evolved in long grass enviroment.
     
  15. John Connellan Valued Senior Member

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    The most efficient animals at moving over mountains are 4 legged.
     
  16. swivel Sci-Fi Author Valued Senior Member

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    Doesn't explain why all the other grassland mammals stayed on four limbs.

    It is most likely tied to tool-use. Upright walking is horrible in too many ways for it to have been a benefit, unless the trade-off was mighty-powerful.
     
  17. TimeTraveler Immortalist Registered Senior Member

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    Because we are not great apes, we are our own species.
     
  18. TimeTraveler Immortalist Registered Senior Member

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    Maybe we always walked upright, there is no evidence that we evolved from not walking upright. Neanderthal walked upright.

    I think whatever species we came from and evolved from, walked upright. I think we walk upright because we wanted to. Or maybe we just did not evolve the ability to swing from trees and had to.
     
  19. swivel Sci-Fi Author Valued Senior Member

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    So... we came from fish that walked upright? And those fish came from single-celled organisms that also walked upright?

    Trust me, at some point, there was a thing that wasn't walking upright, but an environmental pressure caused a gradual change into something that was walking upright. And it didn't happen back with the fishes, it happened during our co-existence with the other great apes.
     
  20. swivel Sci-Fi Author Valued Senior Member

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    "Great Apes" is not a species, so the two are not mutually exclusive. We can be Great Apes, and ALSO be Homo sapiens. It is the distinction between Genera and Species.
     
  21. Nickelodeon Banned Banned

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    Two legs good, four legs bad.
     
  22. Search & Destroy Take one bite at a time Moderator

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    because it frees up our hands!
     
  23. John Connellan Valued Senior Member

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    ..........for masturbation
     

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