The evolution of human walking and running (and why they matter for health)

Walking and running are the most fundamental and common forms of moderate and vigorous physical activity. In this lecture, I will discuss how and why humans evolved to walk and run so differently from other mammals, especially our closest chimpanzee relatives. I will also propose a hypothesis for how and why lifelong physical activity plays such a key role in humans to slow senescence and maintain health as we age.

Bio :

Daniel Lieberman is the Edwin M Lerner II Professor of Biological Science, and Chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology.  He received his AB from Harvard in 1986 (Summa cum laude), M.Phil from Cambridge University in 1987, and phd from Harvard in 1993.  His research combines experimental biomechanics and physiology, paleontology, and comparative anatomy to study how and why the human body is the way it is, with a focus on the evolution of physical activities such as walking and running and their relevance to health and disease. He also teaches a variety of courses on human evolution, anatomy, and physiology and has published more than 200 peer-review papers and three books: The Evolution of the Human Head (Harvard University Press, 2011), The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health and Disease (Pantheon, 2013), and Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding (Pantheon, 2021). He is also an avid runner.