When was walking invented?

The short answer

Nobody invented walking. It evolved. But walking on two legs, the way people do, has something close to a start date: between about 7 and 6 million years ago, according to the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program. That is when the earliest known human ancestors began to walk upright, and every walk since has been a continuation of the habit.

The first walkers

The oldest candidate is Sahelanthropus, which lived 7 to 6 million years ago and may have walked on two legs. By 6 million years ago the evidence is firmer: Orrorin tugenensis had a thigh bone shaped for upright walking. In the Smithsonian’s words, “the oldest evidence for walking on two legs comes from fossils of the earliest humans known.”

The oldest footprints

The most famous evidence is not bones but footprints. At Laetoli, in Tanzania, a trail of prints was left in volcanic ash about 3.6 million years ago, most likely by Australopithecus afarensis, the species of the well-known “Lucy” skeleton. Mary Leakey and Paul Abell found them in 1978.

They are startlingly familiar. The Smithsonian notes that the walkers “had big toes in line with the rest of their foot,” like ours, and that their gait was heel-strike followed by toe-off, “the way modern humans walk.” The close spacing of the prints shows short strides, so they were probably small, short-legged walkers. Walk across a beach and look back at your footprints, and you are looking at the same pattern.

When walking got serious

By 1.9 million years ago, Homo erectus had a body much like ours. Its long thigh bones let it take long strides, so it could “walk farther and faster than earlier humans,” according to the Smithsonian. This is the point where walking long distances becomes part of the human story.

Why did our ancestors stand up?

There is no single answer. The Smithsonian lists several advantages walking upright may have given: reaching food on low branches, freeing the hands to carry food, tools or babies, looking bigger and more intimidating, and crossing wide open landscapes quickly and efficiently. It probably helped early humans survive in a mix of forests and grasslands.

Seven million years later

We have been walking for a very long time, and we still do it every day. If you want your own walks to go somewhere, reTrek turns your daily steps into distance along real routes, from the Camino de Santiago to Everest Base Camp, with a short film about the place at each milestone. Everest Base Camp is free. The species has had 7 million years of practice. Add a few more steps.