The main goal of the thesis is to present how bipedalism has affected human evolution. Bipedalism is a form of moving on hind legs. Chimpanzees, as well as other apes, use it for specific tasks, such as gathering food from a higher branch or carrying things in their hands. This is called optional bipedalism. On the other hand, people use bipedalism as their main form of movement. In this case we are talking about habitual or obligatory bipedalism. Many early hominin remains show early signs of adaptations to bipedal walking combined with preserved primitive traits that allowed them to still be able to climb trees. Because of their adaptation to bipedalism, hominins changed their anatomy to help ease walking. This provides us with a clear picture of their evolution and helps us define different species among them. The reasons why hominins moved from trees to the ground and developed bipedalism are very complex, so in my thesis I will focus on possible hypotheses for its development. I will explain the developmental changes in the human anatomy due to it (development of endurance hunting techniques, development of language and cognitive abilities that enabled the development of culture and art), I will take a closer look at the genus Australopithecus thought to represent the first representatives of bipeds and mention the footprints in volcanic ash in Laetoli. I will then describe how walking on two legs affected the development of human morphology and how it differs from that of a chimpanzee. Despite many studies and research on the topic of bipedalism, there are still many ambiguities and unanswered questions that provide us with the opportunity for supplementary studies in this topic.
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