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Your Aching Back: A Gift from Your Ancient Ancestors

Season 1 Episode 3 | 2m 52s

The shape of our backs keeps us balanced when we walk on two legs, but it comes at a cost. Anatomist Bruce Latimer shows how our transition to being exclusively bipedal has led to many common back ailments.

Extras
Find out which beneficial traits our primate progenitors bequeathed us.
Find out which traits our primate progenitors bequeathed to us.
Learn which parts of our bodies we’ve inherited from our reptilian ancestors.
Learn which parts of our bodies we’ve inherited from our reptilian ancestors.
Paleontologist Holly Dunsworth shows us fossil evidence for the disappearance of our tail.
As Bruce Latimer explains, our evolutionary history has some consequences for our back.
Biologist Peter Holland shows us how much we have in common with a wormy little animal.
Meet an ancient primate with a hand eerily similar to your own.
Our relationship to living primates can be seen in their anatomy and genes.
Don Johanson recounts the discovery of an iconic human ancestor in Ethiopia.
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