Ancient walking gets weirder: Fossils from two human ancestors suggest diversity in gait, stance

Science News ^ | Monday, April 16th, 2012 | Bruce Bower

[SunkenCiv]

1.5 million-year-old footprints excavated in Africa, initially thought to reflect a thoroughly modern walking style, were instead made by individuals that walked differently than people today do, researchers reported April 13 at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. And findings presented April 12 at the meeting revealed the surprisingly apelike qualities of foot fossils from a 2 million-year-old species that some researchers regard as the root of the Homo genus.

These reports come on the heels of evidence that a previously unknown member of the human evolutionary family 3.4 million years ago possessed a gorillalike grasping big toe and an ungainly stride ...

"We can infer that the ancient Ileret individuals had a normal, functional gait, but they may have walked differently than we do," Hatala said. For now, it's uncertain just how these hominids walked and whether they belonged to Homo erectus, a possibly direct human ancestor, or to the side-branch species Paranthropus boisei...

Hatala and his colleagues compared five preserved Ileret footprints to those of 38 Daasanach herders in Kenya, none of whom wear shoes. Participants walked across a pressure pad before walking across moistened Ileret soil that approximated the conditions under which the ancient footprints were made. Pressure measurements at 10 spots across the bottom of the foot closely corresponded to depth measurements at the same spots on volunteers' footprints.

Disparities in depth measurements between Daasanach and ancient Ileret footprints signaled that the hominids walked unlike people today do.

Other comparisons to Daasanach footprints indicated that two sets of Ileret tracks were made by individuals who were walking, not running, and who stood about 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighed 110 pounds. That's in the general size range of Daasanach people today.

[SunkenCiv]

A new analysis of 1.5-million-year-old fossil footprints uncovered at Kenya's Ileret site suggests that they were made by a human ancestor with a gait different than that of modern humans.Courtesy of Matthew Bennett/Bournemouth Univ.

[SunkenCiv]

• Ancient Foot Suggests How Man Gave Up Treehouses

  03/31/2012 11:33:41 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 39 replies

  LiveScience ·
  · Wednesday, March 28, 2012 ·
  · Charles Choi

  Ancient foot bones from a recently discovered pre-human species, which had opposable big toes like a gorilla's, could shed light on how the ancestors of humanity came to walk upright, researchers say. Humans dominate the planet partly because walking upright frees their hands for tool use. Among the earliest known relatives of humanity to walk upright was Australopithecus afarensis, the species including the famed "Lucy." This hominin is a leading candidate for direct ancestor of the human lineage, living about 2.9 million to 3.8 million years ago in East Africa. Although Lucy and her kin were bipedal, there is debate...

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[King Moonracer]

Is that why the Kenyan POTUS swishes when he walks.

[Olog-hai]

They keep looking in Africa, don’t they. As far as possible from where the Bible says it all happened, yes?

Funny how if it walks like a duck et cetera it’s a duck, but if it walks like a gorilla, it ain’t a gorilla but a “human ancestor” . . . ?

[almcbean]

Maybe it was the Ministry of Silly Walks.

[Pollster1]

It's also why the honorable gay gentleman from Idaho has such a wide stance.

[SunkenCiv]

Africa isn’t “as far as possible from where the Bible says it all happened”.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

[SunkenCiv]

Maybe it was the Ministry of Silly Walks.

Hey, aren't they all a little silly, walks or not?

[SunkenCiv]

;’)

[GeronL]

The Homo had a wide stance??

[Oratam]

[bunkerhill7]

Footprints belong to an early member of the Zumba Tribe.

[Gay State Conservative]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIFUm70n0fU

[dog breath]

“Cause she knew what she was doing
She taught me how to walk this way
She told me to
Walk this way, talk this way”

Early Aerosmith fans?

[SunkenCiv]

Steve Tyler probably remembers them.

[Inyo-Mono]

My thoughts too.

[married21]

Maybe early Marx Brothers fans?

[NativeSon]

Cue the crazy “it’s aliens” dude!