Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface: shaping primate evolution
- 1 Charles Oxnard: an appreciation
- Part I Craniofacial form and variation
- Part II Organ structure, function, and behavior
- Part III In vivo organismal verification of functional models
- Part IV Theoretical models in evolutionary morphology
- 13 Becoming bipedal: how do theories of bipedalization stand up to anatomical scrutiny?
- 14 Modeling human walking as an inverted pendulum of varying length
- 15 Estimating the line of action of posteriorly inclined resultant jaw muscle forces in mammals using a model that minimizes functionally important distances in the skull
- Part V Primate diversity and evolution
- Index
- References
13 - Becoming bipedal: how do theories of bipedalization stand up to anatomical scrutiny?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 August 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface: shaping primate evolution
- 1 Charles Oxnard: an appreciation
- Part I Craniofacial form and variation
- Part II Organ structure, function, and behavior
- Part III In vivo organismal verification of functional models
- Part IV Theoretical models in evolutionary morphology
- 13 Becoming bipedal: how do theories of bipedalization stand up to anatomical scrutiny?
- 14 Modeling human walking as an inverted pendulum of varying length
- 15 Estimating the line of action of posteriorly inclined resultant jaw muscle forces in mammals using a model that minimizes functionally important distances in the skull
- Part V Primate diversity and evolution
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
In a volume dedicated to Charles Oxnard and his many contributions to anthropology and zoology, it is only fitting that some papers address the topic of primate, including human, locomotion. A quick survey of Oxnard's long list of publications reveals his abiding interest in the topic – the vast majority of these (and that's a lot!) relate to the evolution of locomotor complexes in primates. Within this area, one of the topics that has captured his attention consistently over the years has been the evolution of human bipedalism and its anatomical correlates. Although Oxnard has never published his own theory on the evolution of human bipedalism, he was one of the first to determine that the australopithecine pelvis was anatomically distinct from that of apes and humans, and that its anatomical uniqueness implied a unique mode of locomotion in the group that had previously not been appreciated (Oxnard, 1973, 1975). To his lasting credit, he never stooped to the level of his detractors on this subject nor gloated when he was shown to be correct by numerous independent sources years later (e.g., Susman et al., 1984).
Theories of bipedalization
The selective factors that operated to promote habitual bipedalism in the ancestors of the human lineage are still hotly debated. As McHenry pointed out years ago, this area of research continues to simultaneously fascinate and frustrate scholars because of its signal importance to human evolution and because we shall never see what really happened (McHenry, 1982).
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- Chapter
- Information
- Shaping Primate EvolutionForm, Function, and Behavior, pp. 281 - 296Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
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