Experimental Studies on Primate Locomotion

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For over a hundred years, anthropologists, comparative anatomists and paleontologists have sought evidence from the fossil record and from; studies on the morphology of nonhuman primates in order to understand how, why, and when the ancestors of living humans became habitual accomplished bipeds. Early in this endeavor it seemed that the answer to this question ;might be that the practice of brachiation, or arm-swinging, by human ancestors preadapted and predisposed them for bipedalism. Recent information on the natural behaviors of apes lend little support to this theory, land new attempts must be made to discover the probable behavior of the form which gave rise to humans. Since the fossil record currently provides limited data bearing directly on this question, and the data which do exist have led to contradictory interpretations about the stages through which the earliest humans passed on their path to becoming accomplished bipeds, emphasis must be placed on determining the functional significance of: (1) osteological features characterizing the oldest fossil hominid, (2) anatomical similarities between humans and nonhuman primates, and (3) those anatomical traits that are unique to humans. Specific hypotheses of muscle function, and the ways in which bony changes might influence such function, can only be tested by in vivo physiological techniques. The proposed study will apply telemetered recording of muscle activity (combined, when appropriate, with force-place and kinematic analyses) in nonhuman primates during regular arboreal locomotor behavior, terrestrial movement, and bipedalism in order to establish the actual roles of individual muscle in these behaviors. In so doing, a better understanding of changes that might have preadapted or predisposed a human ancestor for bipedality is sought. The same methodology will be applied in humans to a study of uniquely human muscles during a wide range of bipedal activities. Combined data nonhuman primates and humans will provide a sounder basis for interpreting the differences in muscle attachment, orientation, and size that can be deduced from fossil evidence of early hominid skeletal structure.