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13 - Becoming bipedal: how do theories of bipedalization stand up to anatomical scrutiny?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 August 2009

By
Nina G. Jablonski  and
George Chaplin
Edited by
Fred Anapol ,
Rebecca Z. German  and
Nina G. Jablonski
Nina G. Jablonski
Affiliation:
Chair and Curator of Anthropology California Academy of Sciences
George Chaplin
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, California Academy of Sciences, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA 94118-4599, USA
Fred Anapol
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Rebecca Z. German
Affiliation:
University of Cincinnati
Nina G. Jablonski
Affiliation:
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco
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Summary

Introduction

In a volume dedicated to Charles Oxnard and his many contributions to anthropology and zoology, it is only fitting that some papers address the topic of primate, including human, locomotion. A quick survey of Oxnard's long list of publications reveals his abiding interest in the topic – the vast majority of these (and that's a lot!) relate to the evolution of locomotor complexes in primates. Within this area, one of the topics that has captured his attention consistently over the years has been the evolution of human bipedalism and its anatomical correlates. Although Oxnard has never published his own theory on the evolution of human bipedalism, he was one of the first to determine that the australopithecine pelvis was anatomically distinct from that of apes and humans, and that its anatomical uniqueness implied a unique mode of locomotion in the group that had previously not been appreciated (Oxnard, 1973, 1975). To his lasting credit, he never stooped to the level of his detractors on this subject nor gloated when he was shown to be correct by numerous independent sources years later (e.g., Susman et al., 1984).

Theories of bipedalization

The selective factors that operated to promote habitual bipedalism in the ancestors of the human lineage are still hotly debated. As McHenry pointed out years ago, this area of research continues to simultaneously fascinate and frustrate scholars because of its signal importance to human evolution and because we shall never see what really happened (McHenry, 1982).

Type
Chapter
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Shaping Primate Evolution
Form, Function, and Behavior
 , pp. 281 - 296
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

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