
Meaning of Biped
In order to begin to know the Meaning of the term biped, it is necessary to discover, in the first place, its etymological origin. In this case we can determine that it derives from Latin because it is the result of the sum of two clearly delimited components:
-The prefix “bi”, which can be translated as “two”.
-The noun “pes, pedis”, which is synonymous with “pie”.
According to DigoPaul, Biped is a notion that mentions someone who has two feet or legs. The concept also refers to the set of two of the limbs of a quadruped (a living being that has four feet).
An animal is often said to be bipedal when it uses both hind or lower limbs to stand up and move. This characteristic differentiates bipeds from quadrupeds, which walk on all four legs.
The adoption of standing (the ability to move on two legs) is part of the evolution of many species. Already in prehistoric times there were dinosaurs that moved bipedally. The human being, on the other hand, is also bipedal.
In the case of man (Homo sapiens), he is always bipedal: he does not naturally move otherwise. In contrast, chimpanzees and other primates that do not belong to the human species, adopt a facultative standing, walking on two or four legs according to the context. In these cases, however, there is usually one form of displacement that prevails over the other.
Various theories suggest why the human being adopted the standing position. This condition developed to get food from trees, carry all kinds of items with the upper limbs, visualize the horizon over obstacles, and regulate body temperature when walking upright. Being bipedal, in short, allowed our species to reach an evolutionary state superior to that of the rest of the animals.
It should be noted that, beyond the fact that standing is natural in humans, prolonged standing can cause health problems since the body demands too much.
Other interesting facts about the term bipedal are, for example, the following:
-In Ethiopia is where the considered first biped in history has been found, so far. It is about a hominid that lived in that place between 3.8 and 4 million years ago and was already upright. Until its discovery, the oldest known biped was considered to be Lucy, an Australopithecus Afarensis found in the same area.
-Among the many famous phrases that the philosopher Plato bequeathed to us is one that reads like this: “Man is an impluous biped”. A description of the human being that he later expanded with the following “tagline”: “and with flat nails”. He did so because, after his first manifestation, Diogenes appeared before Plato with a plucked hen and declared: “here is Plato’s man.”
-Among the bipedal species are primates, birds, lizards, dinosaurs and humans. Not forgetting other singular ones such as kangaroos, which are bipedal and move around by jumping.