A Dartmouth anthropologist whose team discovered two ancient human species explores how our evolution toward bipedalism rendered us dominant, innovative, more compassionate, and more susceptible to health problems. Humans are the only mammals to walk on two rather than four legs -- a locomotion known as bipedalism. We strive to be upstanding citizens, to honor those who stand tall and proud, to take a stand against injusticies. We follow in one another's footsteps and celebrate a child beginning to walk. But why and how, exactly, did we take our first steps? And at what cost? Bipedalism has its drawbacks: giving birth is more difficult and dangerous, our running speed is much slower than that of other animals, and we suffer a variety of ailments, from hernias to scoliosis. In First Steps, paleoanthropologist Jeremy DeSilva explores how unusual and extraordinary this seemingly everyday ability is. A seven-million-year journey to the very origins of the human lineage, First Steps describes upright walking as a gateway to many of the other attributes that make us human--from our technological abilities and thirst for exploration to our use of language--and how it may have laid the foundation for our species' traits of compassion, empathy, and altruism.

Introduction --Part I: The origin of upright walking. -- How we walk ; -- T. rex, the Carolina Butcher, and the first bipeds ; -- "How the human stood upright" and other just-so stories about bipedalism ; -- Lucy's ancestors ; -- Ardi and the River Gods -- Part II: Becoming human. -- Ancient footprints ; -- Many ways to walk a mile ; -- Hominins on the move ; -- Migration to Middle Earth -- Part III: Walk of life. -- Baby steps ; -- Birth and bipedalism ; -- Gait differences and what they mean ; -- Myokines and the cost of immobility ; -- Why walking helps us think ; -- Of ostrich feet and knee replacements -- Conclusion: The empathetic ape.