Complex topography and human evolution: The missing link

Abstract

Why did humans walk upright? Previous models based on adaptations to forest or savannah are challenged here in favour of physical incentives presented by steep rugged terrain - the kind of tectonically varied landscape that has produced early hominin remains. "Scrambler man" pursued his prey up hill and down dale and in so doing became that agile, sprinting, enduring, grasping, jumping two-legged athlete that we know today. © Antiquity Publications Ltd.