Not to fall on your hands and feet, to stand firmly on your feet

I'm walking and I'm thinking.

How our muscles move when we walk, right?

With one leg on the ground, we lift the other slightly and put it forward. Then, balancing on it, we do the same thing with the other leg, sliding it forward and walking comfortably.

But at the same time our arms are swinging back and forth. 

For some reason, our body movements require us to swing our arms while walking.

Why didn't we evolve differently? 

Why can't we walk with only our leg muscles?

***

We humans somehow learned to stand on our own two feet one day in history.

There are various theories about this. 

For example, there are those who say that we wondered what was happening in the future and started standing on our hind legs.

According to this theory, it means that we had front legs and hind legs like other animals.

Maybe we also had a tail. After all, we still have our coccyx today.

These are anatomical changes, but we also have a brain, and our brains have evolved a lot over history.

For example, I think we were quite curious. 

Why else would we get up and look at what's ahead?

Do animals do the same thing?

***

Although there are some very curious ones in the animal kingdom, just like humans. 

What was that? A meerkat, I think they called it. 

When the others in the colony were out of the nest, some of them stood on two legs and kept watch. 

I think it's a special creature for Africa. We call it a ferret, it's a similar animal.

Why is it that no one but humans have ever stood up and walked in nature?

Do you know of any other creature that moves only on two legs?

Birds!

And penguins!

You are right, birds have learned to walk on their hind legs just like humans. 

I guess we should count penguins as birds too. After all, they reproduce by laying eggs. 

They just can't fly like other birds, but they have wings too.

There are other birds that can't fly.

If we talk about birds in general, birds have also managed to make their arms into wings and fly. We couldn't do that!

In this case, can we say that birds are more advanced than humans?

***

The ancestors of birds were dinosaurs, right?  I think that's what the anthropologists said. I say anthropologists, but I think anthropologists were only interested in human development. Or zoologists. Or whatever it is, that's the branch of science that deals with these things.

They were saying that something called the great catastrophe happened and only dinosaurs that could fly survived the great catastrophe.

As far as I understand, there were quite a lot of flying dinosaurs on earth at that time. 

Because today there are thousands of bird species.

However, with that great catastrophe, a big meteorite or something fell on the earth once upon a time, and because of the fires that broke out and the increasing carbon dioxide content in the air, all those big big dinosaurs on the earth were completely wiped out.

Either they couldn't find food or whatever the reason was, but for some reason other creatures continued to live as they were, while the dinosaurs somehow became extinct.

Sometimes it seems to me that this theory is a bit flawed. 

I don't understand how only dinosaurs became extinct.

Of course, it is said that many creatures that live on land today came out of the water and started living on land. 

This out of the water must have happened before the great catastrophe, because dinosaurs are also land dwellers after all.

That's why it doesn't make much sense to me, if the dinosaurs were wiped out, other land-dwelling creatures should have been affected by the catastrophe in the same way.

Anyway, evolution is not the topic, experts know better. 

Even though it was a great catastrophe, somehow life continued on earth.

***

I think there are also kangaroos that can walk on two legs.

Although kangaroos also use their tails for balance when they lift their heads. 

So they can't normally walk only on two legs like us.

And as far as I know, they also use their front legs. 

They have to bend a little bit, but their front legs are also the limbs they have to use while walking.

But yes, they also move on their hind legs. Most of the time it's a jumping movement. 

We humans, on the other hand, can literally walk on our feet without any other limb being involved.

Have you ever noticed how a cat's four legs move in synchronization when it walks?

I say cats, because for most of us, cats are the closest pets in our homes. You've probably noticed their movements too.

First it puts one of its front legs forward, then it puts one of its hind legs forward, I think it puts the hind leg on the same side forward first. Then the other front foot and then the other back foot.

It's quite an interesting synchronization for walking.

And the feet usually step where the other foot has already stepped, one foot at a time.

Look at the tracks left by a cat walking in the snow and you will realize that this is true.

Try it if you like, you can't walk like it, even if you try to walk on all fours. Our body is used to walking on two legs, there is no going back.

***

Cats are very balanced in their body movements. Their body balance is very developed. As you know, even if they fall, they always land on their four legs.

I think all predators have this feature.

***

I think it's very difficult to walk on all fours. 

But all animals in nature somehow manage it.

Do you think the fact that we wave our arms when we walk is proof that we once moved on all fours?

I think that's for sure!

I think it means that we evolved in some way.

For example, monkeys, which are very similar to humans, use their front legs when they walk, but sometimes they know how to walk only on their hind legs.

Okay, I don't want to offend anyone, I don't want to say that our ancestors were apes. 

We have different chromosome numbers anyway. 

So we are definitely not related to apes!

But it seems to me that monkeys are a step in the evolution of living things. 

Doesn't it seem to you that with a little more time they will walk completely on their hind legs like humans?

Today their forelimbs are a bit longer and in a sense they tend to walk on their hind legs like humans.

And of course they almost all have tails!

Today a monkey uses its front legs to walk on its hind legs, but only to keep its balance.

Even though they are not smart enough, I think they are an intermediate form, and I think that one day they will have a civilization. In time they will learn to use their minds too!

Their only misfortune is that a creature like man has already taken over the world's bounty.

Sometimes I watch videos of them stealing from tourists in places where monkeys live a lot and I laugh a lot.

***

Yes, I think for us humans, being able to walk on two legs is one of the most important steps in our historical development.

In a sense, we can even say that this is our biggest physical difference from other creatures, not counting birds.

The fact that we have a mind is the biggest feature that distinguishes us from others, but I think it was very useful to be able to stand up and have our hands free.

Since then, human beings have somehow managed to stand on their own feet.

I think this development is quite special, and as a result, the fact that our hands are free has been very important for the historical development of our hand skills.

We learned to scrape the soil and plant things with our hands.

We made tools with our hands.

We learned to use our fingers and count because they were in front of our eyes.

We held a brush and drew pictures with our hands.

We learned to eat with our hands, we don't just use our mouths to eat like other living things.  

Even this has been a stepping stone to civilization for humans.

Let's appreciate our hands.

Hand labor, the work of the eyes!

Greetings to all those who labor and produce something with their hands.

***

Look, I just came up with a theory, actually it's more like a question.

Did man first stand up and then learn to use his hands? 

Or did he start doing things with his hands and then stand up?

Are there any remains found in archaeological excavations of prehistoric human life that could help us understand this?

***

In one way or another, we somehow started walking on two legs, and that's how we are able to use our hands better than other creatures.

We can't use our arms to grow wings and fly like birds, but with our hands, and also with our minds, we have been able to make airplanes and fly.

I think we prefer to use our hands for more functional purposes.

I couldn't even write this article without my hands. 

***

Speaking of hands, there are some hands that are kissable. 

For example, the hands of our mothers.

But some hands are the kind of hands that we say whose hands are in whose pockets.

Let me once again respectfully mention the hands that give labor, the hands that give labor should be kissed, there is no need to kiss every hand!

Whatever happens to us comes from those who kiss hands and skirts.

You know how to stand, there is no need to bend and twist, walk confidently on this journey of life with your head held high.

Kiss the kissable hands, kiss the hands that labor.

Love and greetings to everyone from Moscow.