how is bipedalism beneficial to human species?

Question

please tell, thanks! :)

Answer 1

It left our hands free for things other than getting around, like using tools, creating fire etc

Answer 2

Here are the anthropological hypotheses. By the way, I typed this out and did not copy it from elsewhere. I think the energetic hypothesis (e) is the best.

a) Man the hunter/scavenger: necessary for tool using
Problem: no evidence of meat consumption nor tool use in early hominins

b) Woman the gatherer: women carry food and infants, early hominins were more like apes
Problem: Similar apes did not develop bipedalism

c) Man the Provisioner: men gathered food and returned to base to feed women
Problems: Fossils suggest that monogamy was not present in early hominins as this would suggest

d) Bipedalism useful in aggressive encounters to intimidate, locate pred, collect food
Problems: Model assumes that bipedalism would evolve in a savanna (which it didn’t)

The following don’t assume that bipedalism has a functional advantage::

e) Energetics hypothesis: Dietary resource distribution changed; walking became more efficient in food collecting than knuckle-walking. Chimps are 50% less en. Efficient than normal quadrupeds (knuckle walking)
Problems: Assumes that common ancestor of great apes knuckle walked

f) Thermoregulation hypothesis: Desire to limit heat uptake based on loss of body hair
Problems: Assumes humans evolved in savanna (likely didn’t)

Answer 3

The bipedal ape had a longer range of sight due to the increased height & the free hands allowed it to carry food back to the safety of the trees & the young there. This allowed them to scavenge meat from predators & view the kill from a safe distance to tell when it was abandoned.
Later, the extra protien allowed faster brain development & the Hominids began to develop tools for quickly butchering the scavenged material & getting at bone marrow that most predators could not reach. This eventually led the hominids to kill their own prey & use fire to cook their foods... allowing them to eat some foods that couldn't be eaten raw. The hand by that time had developed the ability to exert pressure between any finger tip & the opposable thumb... thus allowing tool shaping from stone.
This hand eventually led to working of animal skins & weaving of wool cloth. Today we use it to insult each other over the internet... thus avoiding being punched out by those that disagree with us.

Answer 4

I would say with regard to humans it gives us more versatile mobility. We are able to use our hands independent of our legs which allows us to carries things and engage in combat more effectively. (i.e. Hunter and Gatherer) It also allows us to type answers on Yahoo! Answers... LOL!!!

Here is some more info from Wikipedia:
Limited and exclusive bipedalism can offer a species several advantages. Bipedalism raises the head; this allows a greater field of vision with improved detection of distant dangers or resources, access to deeper water for wading animals and allows the animals to reach higher food sources with their mouths. While upright, non-locomotory limbs become free for other uses, including manipulation (in primates and rodents), flight (in birds), digging (in giant pangolin), combat (in bears and the large monitor lizard) or camouflage (in certain species of octopus). Running speeds can be increased when an animal lacks a flexible backbone, though the maximum bipedal speed appears less fast than the maximum speed of quadrapedal movement with a flexible backbone - the ostrich reaches speeds of (65 km/h) and the red kangaroo (70 km/h), while the cheetah can exceed 100 km/h.

Answer 5

In the environment our ancestors found themselves in, bipedalism meant that they could better observe their surroundings (remember vision is the sense hominids rely on the most).

Secondarily, the hands were completely freed from locomotion, allow for carrying of objects and better able to then use them as tools.

Also, once well adapted to walking, we know that walking can be a very energy efficient way to get around.

Eventually of course, these change led to increasing dependence on tools, with the mental changes that required.

(Note, all of this is in a very brief nutshell).

wl

Answer 6

In the beginning it was a big bonus to be taller so we could see predators coming from further away. It gave us a head start on the running. Also it had the added advantage of allowing us to carry things in our hands.