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A new study published in the Frontiers scientific journal offers an interpretation of the global events that led to the evolution of upright walking in early hominids in Africa around 6 million years ago. Hominids living in the cradles of human evolution in southern and eastern Africa initially walked on all fours. However, through a series of significant physiological changes, their posture shifted to upright standing and bipedal walking.

The main question is, what caused these hominids to fundamentally change their posture and gait? 3 View gallery ( Illustration: Shutterstock ) Many studies have linked this critical transition to environmental, topographical, geomorphological and climatic changes that gradually transformed areas once covered by rainforests into expansive savannas. Nevertheless, the causal factor driving these environmental changes remained unknown, and it was unclear why they all took place at the same time. The new study now offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary solution to this question.



The study was led by Professor Zvi Ben-Avraham from the Department of Geophysics at Tel Aviv University, along with Professor Joel Rak from the Department of Anatomy and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University, and Professor Uri Schattner from the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Haifa, in collaboration with researchers from the University of California (UCLA) and the Oceanographic Institute in Trieste, Italy (OGS). Their research showed that, with.

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