How Our Ancestors Learned to Walk Upright: Scientists Trace the Genetic Steps

For centuries, the question of how humans became upright walkers has fascinated scientists and philosophers. Charles Darwin famously argued in The Descent of Man (1871) that humans evolved from apes, and one of the most striking transformations along the way was bipedalism. A new study, published in Nature, sheds light on the molecular and genetic steps that enabled this evolutionary leap.The Pelvis: The Unsung Hero of WalkingWalking on two feet may feel ordinary today, but it required major anatomical innovations. At the heart of this transformation lies the ilium, the largest bone of the pelvis. This bowllike bone curves around the waist, anchors key leg muscles, supports the pelvic floor, and helps hold our internal organs in place when we stand upright.The ilium is not only essential for walking, it plays a critical role in childbirth by forming much of the birth canal. Its shape is therefore central to two major evolutionary pressures: efficient locomotion and safe delivery of babies. Yet, until recently, the genetic blueprint behind its development remained poorly understood.“It’s remarkable to me,” said Terence Capellini, a developmental geneticist at Harvard, “The ilium is essential to how we walk and how we give birth, and yet very little is known about it.”Peering Into the Womb: A Molecular Detective StoryTo unravel this mystery, Dr. Capellini and his team embarked on an ambitious project, analyzing how the ilium forms in embryos. Gayani Senevirathne, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard, used fetal tissue samples from a University of Washington repository to build 3D models of ilium development and track which genes switched on and off at various stages.The researchers didn’t stop with humans. They performed similar experiments on mice embryos and then expanded their investigation to primates, including chimpanzees, gibbons, and lemurs, by collaborating with museums across the U.S. and Europe.Their efforts resulted in a treasure trove of data covering 18 different primate species, offering unprecedented insight into how this bone evolved over millions of years.The Big Surprise: A Complete FlipConventional wisdom suggested that the human ilium should form like that of other mammals, starting as a rod of cartilage running parallel to the spine, which then curves forward over time. But the Harvard team’s results showed something entirely different.In humans, the ilium starts as a rod perpendicular to the spine, one end pointing toward the belly and the other toward the back. Rather than gradually curving, it retains this perpendicular orientation as it grows into its final shape.“That was really striking to us,” said Dr. Capellini. “Nowhere in the human body do you find a place where humans have just changed the way we grow altogether.”Even more strikingly, the team found that humans use the same set of genes that mice do, but regulate them differently. Genes are switched on and off in a new pattern in human embryos, triggered by signals from surrounding cells. This change in genetic “timing and location” is what reoriented the ilium and made upright walking possible.Evolution in Two Acts: Walking and BirthingThe researchers believe that this reorientation of the ilium was a turning point in human evolution, allowing our ancestors to grow a pelvis that could support strong leg muscles for bipedal locomotion.But their work also revealed a second major shift that likely occurred millions of years later, linked to the rise of larger brains. They discovered that the human ilium is slower to transform from cartilage into bone compared to the rest of the skeleton, lagging by about 15 weeks.This delay may have been a critical adaptation: as brain size increased, so did the risk of babies getting stuck in the birth canal. Natural selection favored rounder, more flexible pelvic shapes that made childbirth safer.The Evolutionary Trade-OffWhile these changes were crucial for survival, they may have also made humans more vulnerable to pelvic problems, including fractures, arthritis, and complications during delivery. Dr. Capellini and his team hope to continue studying the ilium to better understand these vulnerabilities, but funding cuts have placed future research in jeopardy.“We are all wondering what would have come next had we not lost this funding,” he said.Why This MattersThis discovery is more than an evolutionary curiosity, it offers a window into why the human body looks and functions the way it does today. It also highlights the delicate balance of adaptations: the very changes that allowed humans to walk upright and give birth to big-brained babies may have introduced new health challenges.By mapping these genetic changes, scientists hope to not only reconstruct the story of our evolution but also find better ways to diagnose and treat conditions related to the pelvis and lower body.

How Our Ancestors Learned to Walk Upright: Scientists Trace the Genetic Steps

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