Bipedalism: The Science of Upright Walking Specialization

This course will help you learn how fossils give us an insight into how the early members of our lineage walked bipedally. The four million years old bone of Australopithecus anamensis is the oldest undisputed evidence for bipedalism in our lineage. Similarly, Lucy’s, who was Australopithecus afarensis, fossil also helped scientists discover a lot about how bipedalism evolved over time. You will also explore bipedal variations in humans. From its earliest version to its modern form—how humans learned to walk, is an interesting story. Similarly how a human being learns to walk, from a toddler’s first footstep to an adult human being’s walk and its variations would also be discussed in this course. You will also understand that while bipedalism has its advantages, it has its adverse effects on humans too from a musculoskeletal point of view.

Every module of this course has been created with the intention of a “hands-on” learner experience, where you can play around with and learn from 3D renditions of different human and animal fossils. Through these exercises, you will read the shapes found in bones in order to analyze and reconstruct how a species moved.

This course will help you learn that the shapes of bones reflect adaptations and the behaviors that animals frequently participate in. Understanding this relationship is critical for reconstructing the activities of animals in the past. In this course, you will participate in two such activities. You will examine the femurs from a number of different species. You will also explore how footprint data is used to estimate the height of a species. You will participate in a dig at the Koobi Fora fossil site in Kenya. Furthermore, you will explore what a phylogenetic tree is and how they help in discovering the relative relatedness of a group of species. Virtually you will visit the Hall of Human Origins at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. This course will also help you understand the world of fossils. How fossils are formed, how paleontologists find fossils, how they are examined to find information will also be discussed here.

Every module of this course has been created with the intention of a “hands-on” learner experience, where you can play around with and learn from 3D renditions of different human and animal fossils. You will explore fossil sites as well.