We’ve Been Standing Up for 10 Million Years

Abstract

Degenerative lumbar spine is a subject “en vogue” in the contemporary society. Its clinical manifestations, low back pain, sciatic pain, and neurogenic claudication, affect millions of people around the modern world. The societal, psychological, and economical consequences are tremendous. Multiple factors are involved in the origins of disk degeneration. One of them, the bipedalism, the capacity of maintaining a stable fully upright position over the hind members, brought the intervertebral disks to bear load while allowing movement. Unique in nature, the human bipedalism is not fully discussed and vaguely commented in spinal congresses and among experts in this field of science. The acquisition of bipedalism is fruit of a long evolution, and the development of lumbar lordosis ultimately allowed a dynamic and static balance that had a major impact on what we are today. In this chapter the author provided an enlightening perspective regarding a field of science that he pioneered.

Editor’s Note

Professor Yves Coppens, along with Donald Johanson and Maurice Taïeb, discovered the now famous “Lucy,” at that time, the oldest bipedal hominid skeleton. The name Lucy was given as reference to the Beatles song, “Lucy in the sky with diamonds,” which was popular at the time of their excavations and research. Prof. Coppens was the Chairman of Anthropological Biology in the Natural History Museum (Paris, France, 1969-1983). For 22 years (1983–2005), he served as Chair of Paleoanthropology and Prehistory at the prestigious Collège de France. He is also member of the “Académie des Sciences de l’Institut de France” (since 1983) and member of the National Academy of Medicine (France) since 1991. From 2005, Professor Coppens serves as Emeritus Professor of Paleoanthropology and Prehistory in the Collège de France. The Collège de France was founded in 1530. Its alumni include renowned scientists such as André-Marie Ampère (1824–1836) and Charles-Édward Brown-Séquard (1878–1894), among others. He has discovered tons of fossils of vertebrates and signed or cosigned six new Hominidae. He was nominated Grand Officier de la Légion D’Honneur of France. His name was given to an asteroid (172850 Coppens).