Question

In human evolution, which of the following occurred before the switch to walking upright?
(A) Tool use
(B) Mastery of fire
(C) Spoken language
(D) Enhanced grasping ability

Answer 1

Hint: Natural selection, or evolution, is a process that is observed in living things and is thought to be responsible for the progressive alterations in a species' features through successive generations.
Step by step solution:
Homo erectus, which translates to "upright man" in Latin, is most likely our closest living relative and is thought to have originated in Africa during the last 200,000 years. Between 1.9 million and 135,000 years ago, a human species called Homo erectus existed. The theory of human evolution explains how extinct monkeys on Earth gave rise to current humans. The upright, ground-dwelling species Homo sapiens, which we are believed to be from a zoological standpoint, most likely first appeared in Africa some 315,000 years ago. At least seven million years ago, and maybe as long as thirteen million, the human lineage broke off from the ape lineage. Unquestionably, the australopithecines, of which Lucy's species, Australopithecus afarensis, is the most famous, were the first members of our family to consistently walk upright. Homo habilis, sometimes known as the "handyman," was one of the first known humans and lived in Eastern and Southern Africa between 2.4 million and 1.4 million years ago.
A relatively early ape adaptation for living in the trees was improved gripping, which evolved tens of millions of years before upright walking in hominids. Early humans merged apelike and humanlike movements between 6 and 3 million years ago. The fossilized bones you can see here show a gradual change from climbing trees to regularly walking upright. It's possible that Sahelanthropus stood on two legs.
Hence, option (D) is correct.
Note: Australopithecus, Homo-Habilis, Homoerectus, Homo-Neanderthalensis, and Cro-Magnon make up the proper order of human evolution.