Researchers mapped structural changes in the pelvis that enabled early humans to walk bipedally and deliver large-brained infants. The study compared embryonic pelvic development between humans and other mammals and identified two evolutionary steps in cartilage and bone growth that redirected humans onto a separate evolutionary path from other apes. Modern human anatomy, from skull base to toes, reflects adaptations for upright, two-legged locomotion and obstetric accommodation. The pelvis transformed into a wide, bowl-like shape supporting upright gait. Findings have implications for interpreting hominin fossils, understanding developmental genetics, and advancing functional genomics.
All vertebrate species have a pelvis, but there is only one that uses it for upright, two-legged walking. The evolution of the human pelvis, and our two-legged gait, dates back 5 million years, but the precise evolutionary process that allowed this to happen has remained a mystery. Now, researchers have mapped the key structural changes in the pelvis that enabled early humans to first walk on two legs and accommodate giving birth to a big-brained baby.
As modern humans evolved, our pelvises developed the wide, bowl-like shape needed to allow upright, two-legged walking but it is unclear exactly how that happened. The human pelvis is dramatically different than what you see in chimpanzees and gorillas, so we wanted to set out to try and understand what's happening there, says study co-author Terence Capellini, a developmental geneticist a
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