A Science News Best Science Book of the Year: “A brilliant, fun, and scientifically deep stroll through history, anatomy, and evolution.” —Agustín Fuentes, PhD, author of The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional
Winner of the W.W. Howells Book Prize from the American Anthropological Association
Blending history, science, and culture, this highly engaging evolutionary story explores how walking on two legs allowed humans to become the planet’s dominant species.
Humans are the only mammals to walk on two rather than four legs—a locomotion known as bipedalism. We strive to be upstanding citizens, honor those who stand tall and proud, and take a stand against injustices. We follow in each other’s footsteps and celebrate a child’s beginning to walk. But why, and how, exactly, did we take our first steps? And at what cost? Bipedalism has its drawbacks: giving birth is more difficult and dangerous; our running speed is much slower than other animals; and we suffer a variety of ailments, from hernias to sinus problems.
In First Steps, paleoanthropologist Jeremy DeSilva explores how unusual and extraordinary this seemingly ordinary ability is. A seven-million-year journey to the very origins of the human lineage, this book shows how upright walking was a gateway to many of the other attributes that make us human—from our technological abilities to our thirst for exploration and our use of language—and may have laid the foundation for our species’ traits of compassion, empathy, and altruism. Moving from developmental psychology labs to ancient fossil sites throughout Africa and Eurasia, DeSilva brings to life our adventure walking on two legs.
Includes photographs
“A book that strides confidently across this complex terrain, laying out what we know about how walking works, who started doing it, and when.” —The New York Times Book Review
“DeSilva makes a solid scientific case with an expert history of human and ape evolution.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A brisk jaunt through the history of bipedalism . . . will leave readers both informed and uplifted.” —Publishers Weekly
“Breezy popular science at its best.” —Science News
Jeremy DeSilva is an anthropologist at Dartmouth College. He is part of the research team that discovered and described two ancient members of the human family tree—Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi. He has studied wild chimpanzees in Western Uganda and early human fossils in museums throughout Eastern and South Africa. From 1998 to 2003, he worked as an educator at the Boston Museum of Science. He continues to be passionate about science education and travels throughout New England, giving lectures on human evolution. He and his wife, Erin, live in Norwich, Vermont, with their twins, Ben and Josie.
Table of Contents
Author's Note xi
Introduction xv
Part I The Origin of Upright Walking
Chapter 1 How We Walk 3
Chapter 2 T. rex, the Carolina Butcher, and the First Bipeds 17
Chapter 3 "How the Human Stood Upright" and Other Just-So Stories About Bipedalism 31
Chapter 4 Lucy's Ancestors 47
Chapter 5 Ardi and the River Gods 67
Part II Becoming Human
Chapter 6 Ancient Footprints 89
Chapter 7 Many Ways to Walk a Mile 113
Chapter 8 Hominins on the Move 131
Chapter 9 Migration to Middle Earth 145
Part III Walk of Life
Chapter 10 Baby Steps 163
Chapter 11 Birth and Bipedalism 179
Chapter 12 Gait Differences and What They Mean 199
Chapter 13 Myokines and the Cost of Immobility 209
Chapter 14 Why Walking Helps Us Think 221
Chapter 15 Of Ostrich Feet and Knee Replacements 235
