The reason humans walk upright could be because of a series of apocalyptic lightning strikes caused by ancient star explosions millions of years ago, exciting new research suggests.

Researchers say that a number of supernovae, which began around eight million years ago and peaked 2.6 million years ago, sparked a series of events that led to our species evolving to stand upright.

Also on rt.com Scientists discover genes that could hold answers to mysteries of our evolution

The supernovae created a surge of electrons in the Earth’s lower atmosphere. This caused lightning strikes which set off a number of forest fires. The fires burned trees and created wide open air spaces, or savannas, where there had been woodland. This resulted in ancient hominins no longer needing to climb trees, the University of Kansas research suggests.

The prehistoric humans lived on all fours before the supernovae, although they sometimes walked on two legs.

“After this conversion to savanna, they would much more often have to walk from one tree to another across the grassland, and so they become better at walking upright,” lead author Adrian Melott said.

They could see over the tops of grass and watch for predators. It’s thought this conversion to savanna contributed to bipedalism as it became more and more dominant in human ancestors.

It has long been debated exactly when the change to upright movement occured, but the new study claims it happened as a result of the supernovae. Thankfully no such event is forecast to occur again soon.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!