• Question: Hey what do you think the first human feature was?

    Asked by matblack7 to Ed, Hayley, Jason, Nathan, Sophie on 21 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Hayley Evers-King

      Hayley Evers-King answered on 21 Mar 2013:

      I think it depends what you mean by ‘human’. We have lots of features that we share with other animals and other mammals in particular. Maybe being bipedal (walking on two legs) could be thought of as the first human feature?

    • Photo: Sophie Holles

      Sophie Holles answered on 22 Mar 2013:

      I don’t think you could really say it was one thing.. because we evolved several features, probably around the same time because they all affected each other, but they all came gradually. Like walking upright has meant that our pelvis structures have changed, and the top of our backbone had to change so our heads could face forwards. Our skulls have got bigger to hold the proportionally bigger brains we have, which meant that women’s hips had to get wider so that women could give birth to bigger headed babies (this is why men find big hips attractive, women with big hips are more likely to survive childbirth).. and we had to get born earlier so that we could still fit out and our heads continue to expand after we’re born!

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