Bipedalism

While humans and primates are related in many ways, there are distinct characteristics for hominids. The most unique characteristic difference that separates hominids and non-human primates is bipedalism. While hominids walk on two feet, non-human primates are quadrupedal, using all fours to get around. Multiple experiments were conducted to identify between the advantages and disadvantages of being bipedal.

The first experiment involved observing human and non-human primates and their difference in methods of locomotion. All of the people observed used two feet to get around. At the same time they all made use of their hands whether it was the biker steering his bicycle or the multiple people on holding their cell phones. On the other hand, the video of the gorilla demonstrated quadrupedalism. While the gorilla was able to go from walking slowly to running on all fours, it was unable to use its hands for other tasks. The gorilla demonstrated knuckle walking because they have many wrist and forearm features that allow them to do so (Hirji, 2009). Through observations in the video as well as at the zoo, it was easy to see that non-human primates do not have a skeletal structure that is specialized in bipedal locomotion. All in all bipedalism is necessary in order to carry objects and complete other tasks while moving. Therefore, the human body was able to evolve to compensate for bipedal locomotion.

The next station involved putting the observations from station one into practice. Each group member walked normally and walked while holding two grapefruits in order to depict human bipedal locomotion. Each time was recorded to compare to the times of humans walking on all fours. Next each group member walked on all fours and then walked on all fours carrying the grapefruits in order to replicate quadrupedal locomotion. Based on the time differences it was able to be determined that bipedalism is a more beneficial and efficient mode of locomotion compared to...