First Steps: How Bipedalism Made Us Human

We, humans, are the only mammals that walk on two legs instead of four, and we take it for granted. We eagerly await our little ones' first steps, but how did our ancestors take their first steps? We strive to hold our heads high, but at what cost did bipedalism come to humanity?

In the book "First Steps," paleoanthropologist Jeremy DeSilva explores how extraordinary this seemingly ordinary ability is. A journey spanning seven million years to the very roots of humankind shows how upright walking set the stage for the development of the attributes that make us human: the ability to create technology, the desire to explore the world around us, the development and use of language, and possibly laid the groundwork for traits of our species such as compassion, cooperation, and altruism.