| Title |
|
|
|
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
| |
| Author |
|
|
|
| |
| 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. |
| |
| Language |
|
|
|
English
| |
| Source (journal) |
|
|
|
Journal of the Royal Society interface: physical and life sciences. - London | |
| Publication |
|
|
|
London : 2012
| |
| ISSN |
|
|
|
1742-5689
| |
| Volume/pages |
|
|
|
9:69(2012), p. 707-719
| |
| ISI |
|
|
|
000300726700011
| |
| Full text (Publisher's DOI) |
|
|
| | |
|