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upright. Go to a zoo and watch how much easier monkeys— tails and all—stand upright compared to apes. Any monkey can move with grace on its hind legs. In comparison, apes are blundering, top-heavy oafs. Thus, it seems likely that at least some of the hybrid monkey-apes of the Miocene probably had to carry themselves upright, in opposition to the other apes of the era bearing the longer, thicker arms of gibbons, orang- utans, chimpanzees and gorillas. Remember, we're talking about two dozen genera and around 50 species. to act as balancers. (Watch your own bare feet when you take a step and you'll see those final "thrust-off" stages in action.) The pre-humans at Laetoli walked with marked differences. Instead of having a heavy heel-strike leading the way, their ankle was positioned at the centre balance point of the foot, allowing it to come down virtually flat with an almost equal distribution of weight and momentum between the heel and the ball area. Instead of a crazy momentum swing out and around the arch, their arches were much smaller and the line of momentum travelled nearly straight along the midline of the entire foot. That made for a much more stable platform for planting the foot and toeing off into the next step, which was done by generating thrust with the entire ball area rather than with just the big toe. When you get right down to it, the Laetoli stride was a superior technique to the one we utilise WALKING THE WALK entire foot. That made for a much more stable platform for Walking is critical to an understanding of human origins planting the foot and toeing off into the next step, which was because Darwinists feel it is the factor that set our ancestors on done by generating thrust with the entire ball area rather than the road to becoming us. The theory is that around 5.0 to 10 with just the big toe. When you get right down to it, the million years ago, when the heavy forests blanketing Africa Laetoli stride was a superior technique to the one we utilise began shrinking, some forest-dwelling quadrupedal Miocene now. apes still living then (there had been the inevitable extinctions Slow-motion studies of humans walking show that we do and speciations during the preceding 15 to 20 million years) virtually everything "wrong". Our "heel-strike, toe-off" causes began to forage on the newly forming savannas. Though terri- a discombobulation that courses up our entire body. We are bly ill-equipped to undertake such a journey (more about that forced to lock our knees to handle the torque as our momen- later), several ape species supposedly took the risk by learning tum swings out and around our arches. Because of that sus- to stand upright to see out over the savanna pended moment of torque absorption, we grasses to scout for predators. Then—after basically have to fall forward with each millennia of holding that position for step, which is absorbed by our hip joints. extended periods—they adopted constant Meanwhile, balance is assisted by swing- upright posture. In doing so, one of those ing our arms. Because of those factors, daring, unknown species took the real we don't walk with anything approaching "giant step for mankind". optimum efficiency, and the stresses creat- No one can yet say which of the early Only when the ed in us work, over time, to deteriorate our upright-walking "pre-humans" went on to Cro-Magnons appear, joints and eventually cripple us. In short, become us, because the physiological gaps we could use a re-design. between us and them are simply enormous. as suddenly and What we actually need to do is to walk In fact, physically, the only significant inexplicably as more like the pre-humans at Laetoli. In thing we have in common with those early . order to secure that heel-and-toe plant with ancestors is upright posture. But even that everything else, at each step, we'd have to modify our stride reveals noticeable divergence. around 120,000 so our knees weren't locked and we weren't Incredibly, we have the walking trail of at least two early pre-humans at 3.5 million years ago. Found in Laetoli, Tanzania, these tracks were laid down on a volcanic ash fall that was then covered by another ash fall and sealed until their discovery by Mary Leakey's team in 1978. Photos of that trail are common and can be accessed in any basic anthropology textbook or on the Internet. What is not commonly portrayed, however, is that detailed analysis of the pressure points along the surface of those efficient physiologically. prints indicates something that would Based on the evidence of the be expected: they didn't walk like us. After all, 3.5 million Laetoli tracks, this is exactly how they walked. years is a long time, and from a Darwinist standpoint it's logi- cal to assume extensive evolution would occur. But whether it |» WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? throwing ourselves forward through our hip joints. We'd have to keep our knees in a state of continual flexion, however slight, absorbing all the stress of walking in our thighs and buttocks, which both are designed to accommodate. This would provide us with a "gliding" kind of stride that might look unusual (it would resemble the classic Groucho Marx bent-kneed comedic walk), but would actually be much less stressful, much less tiring and incredibly more years ago in the fossil record, do we see beings that are unmistakably human. was evolution or not, our methods of locomotion are uniquely When Darwinists present reconstructions of so-called "pre- different. humans", invariably they look nothing like humans. Humans have a distinctive carriage that starts with a heel Lucy and her Australopithecus relatives were little more strike necessitated by our ankles placed well behind the mid- than upright-walking chimpanzees. The robust australop- point of our feet. After the heel strike, our forward momentum ithecines were bipedal gorillas. The genus Homo (habilis, is swung to the left or right, out to the edges of our feet to erectus, Neanderthals and other debatable species) was a dis- avoid our arches (in normal feet, of course). Once past the tinct upgrade, but still nowhere near the ballpark of humanity. arch, there's a sharp swing of the momentum through the ball Only when the Cro-Magnons appear, as suddenly and inex- of the foot from outside all the way to the inside, where plicably as everything else, at around 120,000 years ago in the momentum is gathered and regenerated in the powerful thrust fossil record, do we see beings that are unmistakably human. of the big toe, with the four small toes drawing themselves up The Laetoli walkers lived 3.5 million years ago. Lucy lived Only when the Cro-Magnons appear, as suddenly and inexplicably as everything else, at around 120,000 years ago in the fossil record, do we see beings that are unmistakably human. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? When Darwinists present reconstructions of so-called "pre- humans", invariably they look nothing like humans. Lucy and her Australopithecus relatives were little more than upright-walking chimpanzees. The robust australop- ithecines were bipedal gorillas. The genus Homo (habilis, erectus, Neanderthals and other debatable species) was a dis- tinct upgrade, but still nowhere near the ballpark of humanity. Only when the Cro-Magnons appear, as suddenly and inex- plicably as everything else, at around 120,000 years ago in the fossil record, do we see beings that are unmistakably human. The Laetoli walkers lived 3.5 million years ago. Lucy lived NEXUS = 49 FEBRUARY — MARCH 2003 www.nexusmagazine.com