List the various survival advantages in bipedality.?

Question

List the various survival advantages in bipedality.?

Answer 1

one can see farther

one's head is farther from the heat of the ground if one is in the hot plains or desert.

hands are freed for other activities, throwing, carrying, manipulating, etc...

Answer 2

I presume you mean for humans and other primates.

Walking on two legs leaves hands free for hunting and gathering and self defense. If equipped with an opposable thumb, you can also manipulate tools to alter environment and that includes artwork as well. It makes eating easier. It also makes hygiene easier if not in some cases possible.

That's about all I can think of, but there must be more except of course using the remote.

Answer 3

Well, it makes walking on the savanna a lot easier.  With the changing landscape of woodsy terrain to the savannas - our ancestors had no choice but to ditch their arboreal (tree) loving attributes to those that helped us walk long distances.  Also, it makes us faster... so we can run from predators.

Answer 4

Here are the current hypotheses (sorry for being so long)

The Following assume bipedalism has a functional advantage::

a) Man the hunter/scavenger: necessary for tools

Problem: no evidence of meat consumption nor tool use in early hominins



b) Woman the gatherer: so women can carry food and infants

Problem: Similar apes did not develop bipedalism



c) Man the Provisioner: men gathered food and returned to base to feed women and children

Problems: Suggests early hominins were pair bonded (likely not)



d) Bipedalism useful in aggressive encounters to intimidate, locate pred, collect food

Problems: Model assumes that this would evolve in a savanna (which it didn’t)

The following don’t assume that bipedalism has a functional advantage::

e) Energetics hypothesis: Dietary resource distribution changed; walking more efficient in food collecting

Problems: Assumes that common ancestor of great apes knuckle walked (may have or not)

f) Thermoregulation hypothesis: Less surface area of sun exposure with biped and better sweating

Problems: Assumes humans evolved in savanna (likely didn't)