Walking, but not running, with the real 'Hobbits' By Stephanie
Guzik, (Volunteer Science Writer) Scientists are a big step
closer to understanding the evolution of walking in humans.
Bipedalism—or walking upright on two feet—has long been
considered one of the hallmarks of human evolution, signaling
the transition from an ape-like reliance on arms and hands for
locomotion to an upright gait using the legs and feet. In the
cover story of the May 7, 2009 issue of the scientific journal
Nature, a global team of scientific collaborators, led by
William L. Jungers of Stony Brook University Medical Center and
co-authored by Smithsonian’s Matt Tocheri of the Department of
Anthropology’s Human Origins Program, investigates the foot
anatomy and bipedalism in a primitive human species called Homo
floresiensis—more commonly referred to as the “hobbit.” Since
the discovery of the first hobbit skeleton in 2003 on the
Indonesian island Flores, researchers have marveled over the
scientifically intriguing hominin (human-like