Man: the imperfect biped.
From a comparative biomechanical standpoint, it would appear that modern man's ancestors have possessed upright posture and bipedalism for 12 to 14 million years. More recent hominid comparisons would show that Australopithecines, hominids dating from about 3 to 4 million years ago, had almost indistinguishable foot structure from that of modern Homo sapiens. Yet man's environment and activities have changed dramatically over this period of time. Perhaps man's foot and his entire ambulatory structure has not evolved sufficiently to meet his needs, and perhaps this has led to the reason why man has a multitude of foot and gait problems, and therefore the need for the study of these problems.
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005528:Foot / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D000882:Haplorhini / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D011323:Primates / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology