Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-6-2015
Publication Title
Nature Communications
Department
Department of Anthropology
Abstract
Modern humans are characterized by a highly specialized foot that reflects our obligate bipedalism. Our understanding of hominin foot evolution is, although, hindered by a paucity of well-associated remains. Here we describe the foot of Homo naledi from Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa, using 107 pedal elements, including one nearly-complete adult foot. The H. naledi foot is predominantly modern human-like in morphology and inferred function, with an adducted hallux, an elongated tarsus, and derived ankle and calcaneocuboid joints. In combination, these features indicate a foot well adapted for striding bipedalism. However, the H. naledi foot differs from modern humans in having more curved proximal pedal phalanges, and features suggestive of a reduced medial longitudinal arch. Within the context of primitive features found elsewhere in the skeleton, these findings suggest a unique locomotor repertoire for H. naledi, thus providing further evidence of locomotor diversity within both the hominin clade and the genus Homo.
DOI
10.1038/ncomms9432
Dartmouth Digital Commons Citation
Harcourt-Smith, W. E.H; Throckmorton, Z.; Congdon, K. A.; Zipfel, B.; Deane, A. S.; Drapeau, M. S.M.; Churchill, S. E.; Berger, L. R.; and DeSilva, J. M., "The Foot of Homo Naledi" (2015). Dartmouth Scholarship. 3410.
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/facoa/3410
