2025年3月6日 (木)に、オーストリアのKonrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI)にて開催されるKLI Colloquiaにおいて、以下の講演をおこないます。詳細はこちらをご覧ください。オンライン (zoom)でも参加できるようです。

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Development and Evolution of Human Bipedalism
Gentaro TAGA (University of Tokyo)

現地時間：2025-03-06 15:00 – 16:30
日本時間：2025-03-06 23:00 – 2025-03-07 00:30

Topic description / abstract

What is the relationship between the development and evolution of human bipedalism? From fetal swimming movement in the amniotic fluid to quadrupedal crawling after birth and the eventual acquisition of upright bipedal walking, ontogeny appears to recapitulate phylogeny. However, through our MRI-based observations and analysis of human fetal movement, we discovered that the coordination between the trunk posture and lower limb movements necessary for upright bipedal walking is spontaneously generated during fetal periods. This suggests that a precursor to bipedalism emerges during fetal development, is preserved after birth rather than being lost, and through a delay in the development of locomotion, ultimately leads to the acquisition of a unique mode of locomotion on the ground. Such a neotenic development implies that only humans evolved habitual bipedalism through heterochronic regulation of the fetal trait of our ancestors. Thus, understanding the early development of the neural mechanisms involved contributes to the construction of an Evo-Devo theory that provides a comprehensive understanding of the development and evolution of bipedalism.
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