Woman walking on the pavement in the town of Versailles, France, 2025
Our bipedal body structure is unique amongst living apes. In fact, our ancestors started on the path to becoming human when they began walking on two legs.
Living apes, our closest relatives, display a remarkable diversity of types of locomotion, from walking upright on two legs to climbing in trees and walking using all four limbs. While scientists have long been intrigued by the question of how humans’ bipedal stance and movement evolved from a quadrupedal ancestor, neither past studies nor fossil records have permitted the reconstruction of a clear and definitive history of the early evolutionary stages that led to human bipedalism.
The oldest evidence for walking on two legs comes from fossils of the earliest humans known. Walking upright may have helped our oldest human ancestors survive in the diverse habitats near where they lived, including forests and grasslands.
By 1.8 million years ago, our ancestors had developed long legs and an efficient striding gait that made it easier to travel longer distances. Our ancestors had also developed the ability to run. This new stride became possible when changes to the shoulders, chest and waist allowed the body to stay balanced during prolonged running.
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