Why do we walk upright?

Question

I mean, it's so impractical. If we stumble, we only have one other leg to fall back on whereas other animals have three. It's takes alot of practice to actually balance on our two legs, it takes babies long enough to crawl. It would be faster on four legs aswell. I know that we used to walk on all fours. Why did we evolve into only walking on two? We're too weak to do that now and our limbs are all the wrong length to try and make us better but why did we change in the first place???

Excuse me veg_rose but I live in Australia and we are not upside down. The earth isn't really a particular way up anway, maps and globes are only drawn the way they are because Europeans dominated the northern hemisphere first and decided that was the way the earth was...

Answer 1

No one is totally sure how upright walking came about. Some say better for hunting, some say better to watch for predators, some say as human brains grew, the babies became weaker and mother had to walk on fewer than 4 legs to carry the babies that could no longer cling to the body hair of the mother.

Another possibility I have recently read about is that apes actually evolved in Asia and walked to Africa leaving some behind to be ancestors to orangutans. Once arriving in Africa, some went back to the trees and some stayed on the ground and continued to walk more upright.

And, by the way, to Briana's answer about 5 great apes. The 5th one is bonobo living in Congo, not South America.

Answer 2

The theory goes that once we were tree dwellers but that the forests dwindled and we were forced to live on the ground. Once there we would stand upright to look over the tall grass to spot danger and eventually we started walking upright.

Answer 3

Walking upright allowed the Human species, who had no natural means of defense, to see predators before they saw us. The upright position also allows us to carry essential weapons and to built shelters to protect us from predators and the natural elements. We can still get down on all fours to hide. The upright position also allowed us to create weapons that could be thrown for long distances before the predators could get at us.

Unfortunately, those weapons can now be "thrown" thousands of miles!!

Answer 4

we walk upright because our ancestors had to. back in time millions of years ago our ancestors diverged from the ancestors of chimpanzees. at this point there were dozens of ape species around as opposed to the 5 we have today(us, chimps, gorillias, orangutangs, and some little one in south america). All of these things were tree dwellers and wanted to live in the forest.

much like comparing you to a gorillia, the otheres like the gorillia were stronger. they outcompeted out ancestors for the prime habitat forcing them to the fringes and eventually to the grasslands outside of the forests.

there walking upright was better than on all fours. it raised them so eye level was higher than the surronding grass. this gave them the ability to see danger and react in advance. you dont have to out run the saber toothed tiger, just the guy beside you who doesn't see it. natural selection better chance of living means better chance of passing on the useful gene to future generations.

after the fact walking upright freed up the hands to carry food, make and use tools. all things that just kept selecting for the genes.

funny the traits we evolved that gave us the edge to be the dominant life form on the planet came about because we were one of the weakest.


OR God built man from clay to walk upright. either way this is how we are now.

Answer 5

because we rule the world.

seriously walking upright lets us carry things, etc it is an evolutionary advantage.

and we rule the world.

Answer 6

Depends where you live....Australians walk upside down.