Skip to main content

Trabecular evidence for a human-like gait in Australopithecus africanus.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Barak, MM; Lieberman, DE; Raichlen, D; Pontzer, H; Warrener, AG; Hublin, J-J
Published in: PloS one
January 2013

Although the earliest known hominins were apparently upright bipeds, there has been mixed evidence whether particular species of hominins including those in the genus Australopithecus walked with relatively extended hips, knees and ankles like modern humans, or with more flexed lower limb joints like apes when bipedal. Here we demonstrate in chimpanzees and humans a highly predictable and sensitive relationship between the orientation of the ankle joint during loading and the principal orientation of trabecular bone struts in the distal tibia that function to withstand compressive forces within the joint. Analyses of the orientation of these struts using microCT scans in a sample of fossil tibiae from the site of Sterkfontein, of which two are assigned to Australopithecus africanus, indicate that these hominins primarily loaded their ankles in a relatively extended posture like modern humans and unlike chimpanzees. In other respects, however, trabecular properties in Au africanus are distinctive, with values that mostly fall between those of chimpanzees and humans. These results indicate that Au. africanus, like Homo, walked with an efficient, extended lower limb.

Duke Scholars

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

Published In

PloS one

DOI

EISSN

1932-6203

ISSN

1932-6203

Publication Date

January 2013

Volume

8

Issue

11

Start / End Page

e77687

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • X-Ray Microtomography
  • Tibia
  • Pan troglodytes
  • Middle Aged
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Hominidae
  • General Science & Technology
  • Gait
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Barak, M. M., Lieberman, D. E., Raichlen, D., Pontzer, H., Warrener, A. G., & Hublin, J.-J. (2013). Trabecular evidence for a human-like gait in Australopithecus africanus. PloS One, 8(11), e77687. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0077687
Barak, Meir M., Daniel E. Lieberman, David Raichlen, Herman Pontzer, Anna G. Warrener, and Jean-Jacques Hublin. “Trabecular evidence for a human-like gait in Australopithecus africanus.PloS One 8, no. 11 (January 2013): e77687. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0077687.
Barak MM, Lieberman DE, Raichlen D, Pontzer H, Warrener AG, Hublin J-J. Trabecular evidence for a human-like gait in Australopithecus africanus. PloS one. 2013 Jan;8(11):e77687.
Barak, Meir M., et al. “Trabecular evidence for a human-like gait in Australopithecus africanus.PloS One, vol. 8, no. 11, Jan. 2013, p. e77687. Epmc, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0077687.
Barak MM, Lieberman DE, Raichlen D, Pontzer H, Warrener AG, Hublin J-J. Trabecular evidence for a human-like gait in Australopithecus africanus. PloS one. 2013 Jan;8(11):e77687.

Published In

PloS one

DOI

EISSN

1932-6203

ISSN

1932-6203

Publication Date

January 2013

Volume

8

Issue

11

Start / End Page

e77687

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • X-Ray Microtomography
  • Tibia
  • Pan troglodytes
  • Middle Aged
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Hominidae
  • General Science & Technology
  • Gait