New evidence that first humans walked upright 'because it was so hot'

The first humans may have started walking upright because the place where they lived was so hot, new research suggests. Scientists discovered that the Turkana Basin of Kenya, long held as the cradle of human evolution, was even hotter millions of years ago than it is now.

Daytime temperatures would have been well into the late 90s every single day. The discovery lends weight to the so-called ‘thermal hypothesis’ of human evolution, which states that mankind first started standing upright because of the intense heat.

According to this theory, our early ancestors gained an evolutionary advantage by walking upright because it is relatively cooler away from the earth’s surface when it is extremely sunny.

They would also expose less of their bodies to the sun’s rays than if they were on all-fours. The loss of body hair would also help when living in a hot climate.

Johns Hopkins University earth scientist Benjamin Passey said: ‘The “take home'” message of our study is that this region, which is one of the key places where fossils have been found documenting human evolution, has been a really hot place for a really long time, even during the period between 3 million years ago and now when the ice ages began and the global climate became cooler.’

He said that this finding lends support to the so-called ‘thermal hypothesis’.

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