Fossils and Macroevolution: What is Their Connection to Bipedalism?

These all lead to an understanding of the change within species, aka macroevolution. They also help us to see the relationship of the differences and similarities of one species to another. Seeing the relationships allows us to group the species by noting things such as the bone structures used to identify their locomotor patterns. Those similarities are referred to as common traits.

The common traits referenced in the previous show are common traits of quadrupeds and common traits of bipeds. Ultimately, we see gorillas and other non-human-apes as having many characteristics that place them with other quadrupeds. We also compare human connection to non-human-apes when ancestral species are reviewed, such as the non-human Australopithecines.

The Australopithecines belong with humans in many ways, not with chimpanzees, gorillas, or any other quadrupeds. However, there are many characteristics common to both Australopithecines and apes, such as;

* Longer forearm bones

* longer fingers and palms

* a rib cage that is not quite barreled.

This matter was also highlighted in SB5. Bipedalism in the webpage/articles from eFossils. Yet, it is also noticed the gorillas and chimpanzees are very different from the other quadrupeds and also similar to humans in many ways.

This is the whole of the matter, in evolution, plotting similar species' changes. For example, the species being examined may have characteristics from the past and also some new ones. This is notable because this classifies them as mosaic species or species with pieces of the past and some of the new. These species are clearly representations of the bridges which connect the evolutionary past to the present or new.

The past biological characteristics are referred to as primitive, and the present/new ones are known as derived. This is notable in many species. That is, many examples of species are similar but different enough to give that species a new name. The skills section in this lesson are to keep you moving along the path of evolution because we are learning ways to analyze data, see the foundations of the theory, and step by step getting closer to the information regarding the similarities and differences humans have to other ...