PNAS
Published August 13, 2018
To determine how human foot function evolved from a grasping to a propulsive structure, researchers analyzed the feet of human-like primates, including fossil apes, and early hominin-foot fossils, including the oldest hominin for which good foot fossils exist. Structures such as dorsal metatarsal-head expansion corroboratethe evolution of terrestrial bipedalism in hominins. Early hominin fossils indicate both diverging and converging pathways towards human-like bipedalism, highlighting the mosaic nature of foot evolution and the emergence of the modern big toe relatively late in human evolution.
Canadian co-author: Sergio Almécija, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay – Sergio.Almecija@lakeheadu.ca