{"id":22998,"date":"2013-04-29T14:17:51","date_gmt":"2013-04-29T18:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sargent\/?p=22998"},"modified":"2013-04-29T14:17:51","modified_gmt":"2013-04-29T18:17:51","slug":"a-two-million-year-old-puzzle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sargent\/a-two-million-year-old-puzzle\/","title":{"rendered":"A Two-Million-Year-Old Puzzle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to a new study co-authored by BU Sargent Assistant Professor of  Physical Therapy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sargent\/academics\/departments-programs\/physical-therapy-department\/phd-in-rehabilitation-sciences\/atpt-program\/kenneth-g-holt\/\">Kenneth Holt<\/a> in the journal <i>Science<\/i>, our <i>Australopithecus<\/i> ancestors  may have used a different approach to walking than previously believed. Holt and  colleagues including BU Assistant Professor of Anthropology <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/anthrop\/people\/faculty\/j-desilva\/\">Jeremy De Silva<\/a> hypothesize that these early hominins walked with a fully extended leg (like  humans do), but with an inverted foot (like an ape), producing hyperpronation of  the foot and excessive rotation of the knee and hip during bipedal walking.  These bipedal mechanics are different from those often reconstructed for other  australopiths and suggest that there may have been several forms of bipedalism  throughout human evolution.<\/p>\n<p>The new findings appear in the latest issue of the journal <i>Science<\/i> in  an article titled <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencemag.org\/content\/340\/6129\/1232999\">&#8221; The Lower Limb and Mechanics of Walking in <em>Australopithecus sediba<\/em>&#8220;<\/a>. The paper  is one of six published in April in <i>Science<\/i> that represent the  culmination of more than four years of research into the anatomy of  <i>Australopithecus sediba<\/i> (<i>Au. sediba)<\/i>. Two-million-year-old fossils  of the species, discovered in Malapa cave in South Africa in 2008, are some of  the most complete early human ancestral remains ever discovered.<\/p>\n<p>The locomotion findings are based on two Malapa <i>Au. sediba<\/i> skeletons.  The relatively complete skeletons of an adult female and juvenile male made  possible a detailed locomotor analysis, which was used to form a comprehensive  picture of how this early human ancestor walked around its world.<\/p>\n<p><i>Australopithecus sediba<\/i> has a combination of primitive and derived  features in the hand, upper limb, thorax, spine, and foot. It also has a  relatively small brain, a human-like pelvis, and a mosaic of <i>Homo<\/i>&#8211; and  <i>Australopithecus<\/i>-like craniodental anatomy. The foot in particular  possesses an anatomical mosaic not present in either <i>Au. afarensis<\/i> or  <i>Au. africanus<\/i>, supporting the contention that there were multiple forms  of bipedal locomotion in the Plio-Pleistocene. (The recent discovery of an  <i>Ardipithecus<\/i>-like foot from 3.4-million-year-old deposits at Burtele,  Ethiopia, further shows that at least two different forms of bipedalism  coexisted in the Pliocene.)<\/p>\n<p>Co-authors of this study are: Kristian J. Carlson, Evolutionary Studies  Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and the Department of  Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN; Christopher S. Walker,  Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC; Bernhard  Zipfel, Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, South  Africa and Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, School of  Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; and Lee R. Berger,  Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, South  Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Post adapted from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/2013\/04\/16\/walk-this-way-how-human-ancestors-got-around\/\">Boston University College of Arts &amp; Sciences<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to a new study co-authored by BU Sargent Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy Kenneth Holt in the journal Science, our Australopithecus ancestors may have used a different approach to walking than previously believed. Holt and colleagues including BU Assistant Professor of Anthropology Jeremy De Silva hypothesize that these early hominins walked with a fully [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6907,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sargent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22998"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sargent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sargent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sargent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6907"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sargent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sargent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22999,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sargent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22998\/revisions\/22999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sargent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sargent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sargent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}