Human-like external function of the foot, and fully upright gait, confirmed in the 3.66 million year old Laetoli hominin footprints by topographic statistics, experimental footprint-formation and computer simulation.

It is commonly held that the major functional features of the human foot (e.g. a functional longitudinal medial arch, lateral to medial force transfer and hallucal (big-toe) push-off) appear only in the last 2 Myr, but functional interpretations of footbones and footprints of early human ancestors (hominins) prior to 2 million years ago (Mya) remain contradictory. Pixel-wise topographical statistical analysis of Laetoli footprint morphology, compared with results from experimental studies of footprint formation; foot-pressure measurements in bipedalism of humans and non-human great apes; and computer simulation techniques, indicate that most of these functional features were already present, albeit less strongly expressed than in ourselves, in the maker of the Laetoli G-1 footprint trail, 3.66 Mya. This finding provides strong support to those previous studies which have interpreted the G-1 prints as generally modern in aspect.

Jaar van publicatie:2012

Trefwoorden:Animals,Biological Evolution,Biomechanics,Body Weight,Computer Simulation,Dermatoglyphics,Foot,Foot: anatomy histology,Foot: physiology,Fossils,Gait,Gait: physiology,History, Ancient,Hominidae,Hominidae: anatomy histology,Hominidae: physiology,Humans,Paleontology,Pressure,Systems Biology,Tanzania