Blog 8: Bipedalism

After reading the posted articles there seems to be a few forces that led to the evolution of bipediality. One includes the increased ability to obtain and gather food and necessary materials. Walking on two legs allowed our ancestors’ arms to be free to use for the use of other things, such as, grasping, tool-making, gathering etc. Also, freeing up the arms lead to greater mobility and therefore increased the range in which territories could be traveled. Sexual selection also provided selective pressure, by walking on two feet males could obtain more resources in which females could benefit from and therefore were choosey for. Standing upright also allowed females to see male reproductive organs; the well-endowed obtained the greater number of copulations.

Forces that led to the evolution of larger brain size our shared primate ancestors included living in my complex groups, evolving different behaviors towards other individuals. They had to be able to remember certain behaviors that were beneficial to repeat or avoid. Freeing of the hands due to bipediality led to the enlarging brain since it allowed for multiple activities to be done at one time, increasing the neural connections within the brain.