The reason men and women walk differently may derive from an evolutionary development that made human males more efficient walkers than their Neanderthal ancestors, according to a new Tel Aviv University study published in Scientific Reports.

While male pelvises have adapted over time to cushion the body from the impact of walking and minimize energy expenditure, women’s pelvises did not evolve the same way, due to constraints related to female reproductive systems. Female pelvises therefore remained anatomically similar to those of our Neanderthal ancestors who lived between 130,000 and 40,000 years ago, according to research led by Prof. Yoel Rak of TAU’s Department of Anatomy and Anthropology. The study was conducted in collaboration with researchers from Spain, the Technion, Bar-Ilan University and Ono Academic College.

The findings — admittedly based on a small sample size — may have new implications for the study of human anatomy, as well as for understanding the way gender roles developed over the millennia, Rak told The Times of Israel in a phone interview.

For decades, anthropologists struggled to understand the differences between the broad pelvic structure of Neanderthals and that of modern humans, Rak said. It was assumed the difference was linked to a wide birth canal designed to deliver infants with larger heads or longer gestation periods.

The discovery of two nearly complete male Neanderthal pelvises in recent decades — in the Kebara Cave in Israel in 1982 and in the Sima de los Huesos site in Spain in 2014 — was a breakthrough that made it possible for the first time to observe their similarities and differences with those of modern humans, he said.

“The Neanderthal pelvis was a mystery for many years,” Rak........

© The Times of Israel