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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
Crompton, Robin H; Pataky, Todd C; Savage, Russell; D'Août, Kristiaan; Bennett, Matthew R; Day, Michael H; Bates, Karl; Morse, Sarita; Sellers, William I
Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 2011;9(69):707.
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Abstract
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.
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- Related website http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2011/07/18/rsif.2011.0258.abstract
- 10.1098/rsif.2011.0258