Question

From the comparative and morphological evidence on hand, what can we say about the behavior and social organization of the hominins between 3 and 2 mya?

Answer 1

The morphology and arrangement of pelvic bones in these hominins indicate that they show bipedalism or bipedal locomotion. It is an adaptation for woodland and grassland. This type of locomotion is beneficial to move from one place to another in a region containing tall grasses. This is also useful to look for food and big animals which are probable predators. Bipedal organisms can walk greater distance while dissipating less energy to hunt for food. Bipedalism has made these hominins to run faster.

An upright posture is also seen in these hominins. This is useful to dissipate excess body heat and absorb less heat from sun. This makes less surface of skin in contact with direct heat of sun during hottest days. Because of this posture, they were not able to live in caves and started making big houses.

The hands were adapted to make handling of tools easier. This made them them to design new tools and manipulate the older one. They could use tools easily now. This adaptation lead them to hold food easily. This also allowed them to hold their babies, showing an increased parental care.

A disadvantage of bipedalism was that they faced difficulties in climbing trees and canopies. So, they started dwelling low heighted trees.

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