Scientists have identified gene shift which enabled ancestors to walk upright

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/genes-humans-walk-upright-stand-arthritis-gmvcdbd5q

"Scientists have identified the genetic changes that enabled our ancient ancestors to stop dragging their knuckles and start walking upright on two legs about six million years ago.

Researchers were also able to identify genetic and skeletal variants linked to arthritis in the knee, hip and back, using data stored in the UK Biobank. They said this was a “more practical” discovery that could lead to new treatments for the debilitating conditions.

Scientists from Columbia and Texas universities in the United States used a form of artificial intelligence to examine more than 30,000 full-body x-rays stored in the UK Biobank, a repository containing genetic data from more than half a million volunteers.

They used the process to measure 23 skeletal features such as shoulder width,torso length and the angle of tibia to femur, or shinbone to thigh bone. This was then compared with genomic data stored in the biobank to identify 145 regions of the chromosome that govern these skeletal proportions, most of which were previously unknown. The researchers found that many of these regions were in areas of the human genome that have evolved at an “accelerated” pace compared with the same genes in great apes.


It is the first genetic proof that natural selection drove evolutionary changes in the bodies of our ape ancestors, leading our branch of the primate family tree to gradually start walking upright on two legs."

( my bolding)

 

Walking upright is all very well for spotting lions on the savannah and freeing one’s front paws to throw sticks at them, but it is murder on the lower back. We’d have been much better off on a different evolutionary path, distributing our weight sensibly across all our limbs, and brachiating to work along municipal pole and branch clingways.

 

The level of judgement in this ...

 

I doubt it is anything of the sort. Proof of natural selection is very hard to come by. This just shows evolution.