- Image by mikebaird via Flickr
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
If walking upright first set early human ancestors apart from their ape cousins, it may have been their eventual ability to run long distances with a springing step over the African savanna that influenced the transition to today’s human body form, two researchers are reporting today.
The evolution of physiques for distance running made humans look the way we do now, whether winning a marathon, nursing a strained Achilles tendon or sitting on an ample gluteus maximus in front of the TV.