Bones

We take walking for granted, but it’s complex and beginning to walk has an impact on our anatomy.

Its obvious that the evolution of walking has had a profound impact on our bodies.

Early humans evolved to manipulate objects with their hands, and become toolmakers aided by a powerful thumb.

With our hands we could make the tools and technology which allowed us to colonise every corner of the globe. But, they also enabled us to do much more than that. They gave us the means to transform the world around us.

A look at the implications on the spine of walking upright and how the dorsiflexion of the ankle has changed.

To climb efficiently on somthing vertical, you need to be able to bend your foot up much more than we can. When climbing chimps can dosiflex their ankles up to 45 degrees.

Moving from jungle to grassland, in this changing habitat, forced apes to evolve the ability to walk and then run.

The best place in the world to understand Nariokotome Boy’s mysterious physique is not in this African habitat, but in Boston, at Harvard University.

Chimpanzees may be our closest living relative but, we are not evolved from them. Meet Toamai an early ancestor who may be our common parent.

This is a hugely significant moment in our story. It means that Toumai was moving around on two legs very close to the time our ancestors split from the chimpanzees. There’s no question, he’s more chimpanzee-like than human ,but Toumai puts standing up right at the start of our journey.

A remarkable and famous fossil find; Lucy an Australopithecus afarensis, is illuminating our human evolution.

The shape of the bones in particularly the tibia reveals a lot about her ambulatory nature.