This week’s discussion is all about bipedalism! As bipedalism is the first hominin characteristic to evolve, anthropologists are particularly interested in determining why early hominids became bipedal. For this week I would like you all to evaluate the hypotheses that have been used to explain the rise of bipedalism (click here to download the hypotheses with descriptionsPreview the document). For each hypothesis please provide a critical evaluation of how likely it is to explain the appearance of bipedalism, give what you know about human evolution from this week’s textbook chapter, guided notes, and lab. Keep in mind that some of these hypotheses are older, and some are more accepted by the main stream than others. After you have evaluated each hypothesis, tell me which hypothesis/hypotheses you find most convincing and why!
