Trabecular Evidence for a Human-Like Gait in Australopithecus africanus
Trabecular Evidence for a Human-Like Gait in Australopithecus africanus
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0077687
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发表时间：
2013-11-05
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Hublin, Jean-Jacques
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Barak, Meir M.;Lieberman, Daniel E.;Hublin, Jean-Jacques
尽管已知最早的古人类显然是直立的两足动物，但有不同的证据表明，包括南方古猿属在内的特定古人类物种是否像现代人类那样以相对伸展的臀部、膝盖和脚踝行走，或者在双足行走时像猿一样以更弯曲的下肢关节行走。在这里，我们在黑猩猩和人类中证明了加载期间踝关节的方向与远端胫骨中用于承受关节内压缩力的小梁骨支柱的主要方向之间的高度可预测和敏感的关系。使用微 CT 扫描对斯泰克方丹遗址的化石胫骨样本（其中两个属于非洲南方古猿）进行的分析表明，这些古人类主要以相对伸展的姿势加载脚踝，就像现代人类一样，而不像黑猩猩。然而，在其他方面，非洲人的小梁特性是独特的，其值大多介于黑猩猩和人类之间。这些结果表明Au。非洲人和智人一样，都用有效且伸展的下肢行走。
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.