engleski

Certain medical problems resulting from evolutionary processes: bipedalism as an example

Humans are primates, and as such, our overall anatomy is very similar to that of other members of this biological order. Yet, there are numerous differences in certain anatomical regions of living humans when compared to our closest living relatives, the African great apes. Many of these, such as our extremely large brains compared to body size (even if all primates have relatively large brains), details in dental anatomy, and so on, appear at different times in our evolutionary past and within the tribe hominini. However, the first, and taxonomically most significant synapomorphy of the hominin clade is a change in locomotory mode, from that of a quadruped (presumably the ancestral state in last common ancestor (LCA) of humans and apes) to biped. In this paper, a brief overview is given of the most important anatomical challenges that these novel locomotory patterns required to be enegretically efficient, as seen in the comparison between living African apes and humans. Further, an overview of the fossil record, as related to the issues raised, is given. Lastly, the importance of understanding evolutionary adaptations and changes for the medical profession is discussed.

bipedalism; human walking; human evolution; paleoanthropology

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