Crucial to Leroi-Gourhan's understanding of human evolution is the notion that the transition to bipedality freed the hands for grasping, and the face for gesturing and speaking, and thus that the development of the cortex, of technology, and of language all follow from the adoption of an upright stance.
He has written several pieces for choreographers, including Biped (1999) for Merce Cunningham.
In the 1950s, Swiss paleontologist Johannes Hürzeler discovered a complete skeleton in Baccinello and claimed it was a true hominid — based on its short jaws and reduced canines, at the time considered diagnostic of the hominid family — and a biped — since the short pelvis was closer to those of hominids than those of chimpanzees and gorillas.