Early Hominin Foot Morphology Based on 1.5-Million-Year-Old Footprints from Ileret, Kenya
Early Hominin Foot Morphology Based on 1.5-Million-Year-Old Footprints from Ileret, Kenya
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DOI：
10.1126/science.1168132
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发表时间：
2009-02-27
期刊：
影响因子：
56.9
通讯作者：
Gonzalez, Silvia
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bennett, Matthew R.;Harris, John W. K.;Gonzalez, Silvia
古人类脚印提供了步态和脚形的证据，但它们的稀缺性，加上古人类化石记录的不充分，阻碍了对人类步态进化的研究。在这里，我们报告了在肯尼亚Ileret的两个沉积层中发现的人类脚印，这些脚印的年代为151万至153万年前（Ma），提供了最古老的证据，证明基本上是现代人类的足部解剖结构，具有相对内收的拇趾，内侧纵向弓和蹬蹬前的内侧重量转移。伊雷特脚印的大小与对埃及人/直立人的身高和体重的估计是一致的，而且这些脚印在形态上也与坦桑尼亚Laetoli的375万年前的脚印不同。伊勒雷特的脚印显示，在1.5万年前，古人类已经进化出了一种基本的现代人的足部功能和两足运动方式。
Hominin footprints offer evidence about gait and foot shape, but their scarcity, combined with an inadequate hominin fossil record, hampers research on the evolution of the human gait. Here, we report hominin footprints in two sedimentary layers dated at 1.51 to 1.53 million years ago (Ma) at Ileret, Kenya, providing the oldest evidence of an essentially modern human-like foot anatomy, with a relatively adducted hallux, medial longitudinal arch, and medial weight transfer before push-off. The size of the Ileret footprints is consistent with stature and body mass estimates for Homo ergaster/erectus, and these prints are also morphologically distinct from the 3.75-million-year-old footprints at Laetoli, Tanzania. The Ileret prints show that by 1.5 Ma, hominins had evolved an essentially modern human foot function and style of bipedal locomotion.