Richard Leakey - Bipedal Quotes

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We are justified in calling all species of bipedal ape "human."... the adaptation of bipedalism was so loaded with evolutionary potential—freeing the upper limbs to be free to become manipulative implements one day—that its importance should be recognized in our nomenclature. These humans were not like us, but without the bipedal adaptation they couldn't have become us.

Richard Leakey

If the molecular evidence is correct... almost five million years passed between the time our ancestors became bipedal and the time when they started making stone tools. Whatever the evolutionary force that produced a bipedal ape, it was not linked with the ability to make and use tools. However, many anthropologists believe that the advent of technology 2.5 million years ago did coincide with the beginnings of brain expansion.

Richard Leakey

We are bipedal apes, and it should not be surprising to see that fact reflected in the way our ancestors lived.

Richard Leakey