A need and desire to be in motion may have been bred into our DNA before we even became humans and could have helped to guide the evolution of our species, according to a fascinating new study of the genetics of physical activity.

The study uses big data and sophisticated genetic analyses to determine that some of the gene variants associated with how much and whether people move seem to have joined our ancestors’ genome hundreds of thousands of years ago, making them integral to human existence and well-being and raising interesting questions about what that means today, when most humans are sedentary.

There has been evidence for some time that whether and how much people and other animals move depends to some extent on family history and genetics. Past twin studies and genome-wide association studies — which scan genomes looking for snippets of DNA shared by individuals who also share certain traits — suggest that about 50 percent of physical activity behavior in people may depend on genes.

Our tendency to move or not is different from our innate aerobic fitness. Someone could be born with a large inherited endurance capacity and no interest at all in leaving the couch, or vice versa.