DOCSLIB.ORG

Factoring the Proto-Biped Infant

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Factoring the Proto-Biped Infant 1 FACTORING THE PROTO-BIPED INFANT INTO THE ORIGIN OF BIPEDALISM Grayson Joy Gerrard March 2018 A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University © Copyright by Grayson Joy Gerrard 2018 2 Except where otherwise indicated by citation, all parts of this thesis represent my own original work _______________________________ 3 DEDICATION TO THE MEMORY OF COLIN GROVES 1942 - 2017 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe an enormous debt to the late Colin Groves, who encouraged this project from the outset and who chose to continue supervising it even when his health was failing. I am deeply grateful to him for everything he taught me about palaeoanthropology and primates, and for years of patience, kindness, support, constructive criticism, and mentoring. No matter how busy he was with his many other commitments, Colin was always there for his postgraduates, always their rock, and always unfailingly generous with his time. My own debt to him is particularly acute because I was one of the last few of these privileged individuals, and he was part-way through reading the final draft of this thesis before his last illness. I am also indebted to Dr. Phyll Dance, Colin’s wife, for many kindnesses during the years I was her husband’s student. Dr. Robert Attenborough acted as my co-supervisor. I thank him warmly for all his encouragement and support, his insistence on careful definitions, and his many constructive criticisms and suggestions for improvement. Most of all, I thank him for taking on the task of steering this thesis through its final, pre-submission stages. Neale Reynolds and Jennifer Grattidge extended hospitality and many forms of practical assistance during all my thesis-related visits to Canberra, and I thank them for being such good friends. I also thank Bec Scott of the National Zoo and Aquarium, Canberra, for granting permission for the siamang observation study which forms Appendix B; Jessica Walsh and staff of the off-campus service of ANU library for all their very efficient help with library resources; Liz 5 Walters (now retired from ANU) for extensive administrative support during the early stages of the thesis, and for being Liz. Lastly, I thank John Dawson for all his support on the home front and for all the sacrifices. Without John, there would have been no thesis. 6 ABSTRACT This thesis applies a single test method to a high number of proposed explanations (models) of hominin bipedalism. This has not been undertaken previously, due largely to the very variable ways in which the models have been built, and the disparity of their core ideas. Taken as a whole, however, the modelling literature contains a gap, and the thesis’ main claim is that it can be exploited to assess relative levels of tenability, using non-statistics-based hypothesis testing. Infants are defined here as individuals too young to survive without caregivers and older infants are defined as those who are not completely dependent on others for nutrition and transport. Most models have omitted infants, and others have included them only in minor or circumscribed ways. A species’ survival, however, depends on sufficient numbers of young reaching breeding age, and species which provide postnatal care need to provide adequate care. Any viable model of how hominin bipedalism evolved ought, therefore, to be able to accommodate appropriate levels of infant survival and adequate caregiving, and factoring infants and caregivers into the models can thus serve as a test method. The method cannot assess overall robusticity, because models which accommodate infants and caregivers might be untenable relative to other criteria, but it can narrow down the possible ways in which bipedalism might have evolved by identifying models which are untenable in one crucial way. Seventy-six models, written between 1871 and 2017, are identified. They are classified into 12 model types, three of which are treated as obsolete. Seventy-one models 7 are tested, 76.2% of which omit infants or include them only trivially. The models are tested either in blocs, according to type or variant, or individually. Forty-three tests are conducted. In order to factor a proto-biped infant into a model, it is necessary to have a clear idea of its likely basic characters. After its Introduction, Methods chapter and Literature Review, this thesis is therefore divided into two distinct parts. The first part extensively reviews available literature bases for character reconstruction, and one of these bases, the literature on nonhuman anthropoid infancy, is supplemented by a short-term captive study of clinging behaviour in an orthograde ape, presented as an appendix. The likely size of older proto-biped infants, relative to conspecific adult females, is then estimated, based on data for extant anthropoids. All this information is then synthesized to reconstruct the infant and to guide the tests’ expectations of infant/adult differences and adequate caregiving behaviours. The second part of the thesis contains the 43 tests. The results show that 40.8% of models are untenable, including two whole model types, 43.7% are highly questionable, and only 11.3% accommodate infant survival well (4.2% did not support the test method). These results indicate that the ways in which bipedalism might have evolved are heavily constrained by the needs of infants. They also suggest that future models which consider the full implications of their proposed behaviours for infants and caregivers will have greater explanatory value than the majority of existing models. 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements 4 Abstract 6 Table of contents 8 List of tables 14 List of figures 17 List of abbreviations 19 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.0 The topic area 20 1.1 Key terms 24 1.2 Aims 30 1.3 Overview of methods 31 1.4 Chapter outline 32 Chapter 2: Materials and methods 2.0 Models of bipedalism 34 2.1 The role of infants in the models 35 2.2 Test preparation: reconstruction of the proto-biped infant 35 2.3 Test procedure 36 2.4 Test results 39 Chapter 3: Literature review 3.0 Counting and classifying models of bipedalism 40 3.1 Review of model types 48 3.2 Overview of the literature 60 3.3 The role of infants 65 Chapter 4: Analogues for the proto-biped infant: extant nonhuman anthropoids 9 4.0 Nonhuman anthropoids as an analogue 70 4.1 Precocity 70 4.2 Life history (LH) 73 4.3 Carrying/Clinging 79 4.4 Nutritional dependence 85 4.5 Infant locomotion 89 4.6 Mortality 95 4.7 Allomothering 101 4.8 Conclusion 107 Chapter 5: Analogues for the proto-biped infant: Homo sapiens 5.0 Introduction 108 5.1 Hair reduction 109 5.2 Adipose tissue 114 5.3 Secondary altriciality 119 5.4 Childhood 124 5.5 Allomothering 126 5.6 Infant mortality 128 5.7 Clinging/Carrying 131 5.8 Locomotion 140 5.8.1 Factors which protract human locomotor ontogeny 146 5.9 Conclusion 148 Chapter 6: Analogues for the proto-biped infant: early fossil hominins 6.0 Introduction 149 6.1 Early hominin LH: consensus and debate 151 6.1.1 Old and new paradigms 151 6.1.2 Proto-biped LHs 153 6.2 Secondary altriciality 153 10 6.2.1 Secondary altriciality and brain sizes 153 6.2.2 Secondary altriciality and australopiths 157 6.2.3 Secondary altriciality and proto-bipeds 159 6.3 Childhood 160 6.3.1 Childhood in Homo 161 6.3.2 Childhood in australopiths 164 6.3.3 Childhood in proto-bipeds 165 6.4 Carrying/Clinging 6.4.1 Motor maturation and clinging 165 6.4.2 Arboreality and clinging and carrying 166 6.4.3 Proto-biped clinging and carrying 171 6.5 Infant locomotion 6.5.1 Australopith locomotor ontogeny 172 6.5.2 Proto-biped locomotor ontogeny 178 6.6 Allomothering 179 6.7 Conclusion 183 Chapter 7: Reconstructions of the chimpanzee-human last common ancestor (CHLCA) 7.0 Introduction 185 7.1 CHLCA reconstruction methods 186 7.2 Chimpanzee-like and non-chimpanzee-like CHLCAs 187 7.3 The fossil record and the CHLCA 192 7.3.1 Level of encephalization 193 7.3.2 Sociality 195 7.3.3 Gross LH pace 196 7.4 Controversy: inferring other aspects of the CHLCA from the fossil record 198 7.4.1 The controversial African ape last common ancestor (AALCA) 199 11 7.4.2 The controversial earliest hominins 200 7.4.3 Limitations of the fossil record for reconstructing CHLCA locomotion 201 7.4.4 The ambiguous fossil record 203 7.5 Precursor locomotion hypotheses 204 7.5.1 Current precursor locomotion hypotheses 207 7.5.2a Knuckle-walking (KW) 211 7.5.2b Arboreal pronogrady 211 7.5.2c Arboreal orthogrady 212 7.5.2d Current locomotor hypotheses: similarities and differences 212 7.6 Widely inferred characters of the CHLCA and contentious characters 214 7.7 CHLCA reconstructions and the proto-biped infant 221 Chapter 8: Proto-biped infant reconstruction 8.0 Introduction 222 8.1 Relative body size 8.1.1 Parameters of immature body size in proto-bipeds 223 8.1.2 Relative sizes of immature and adult anthropoids 227 8.2 The reconstructed proto-biped infant: aspects of infancy inferred from living and fossil analogues and CHLCA reconstructions 240 8.3 The reconstructed proto-biped infant: uninferrable aspects 249 8.4 The basic proto-biped infant 250 12 Chapter 9: Tests of model types as blocs: ‘Conserving Energy’, ‘Cooling’, ‘Standing-and-shuffling’ 254 Chapter 10: Tests of dual-variant model types by variant: ‘Exaptive Arboreality’ and ‘Sitting’ 269 Chapter 11: Tests of dual-variant model types by variant: ‘Versatility’ and ‘Water’ 287 Chapter 12: Tests of the Standing model type by five variants 311 Chapter 13: Tests of the ‘Display’ variant of the Standing model type, by version
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Orangutan Positional Behavior and the Nature of Arboreal Locomotion in Hominoidea Susannah K.S
    AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 000:000–000 (2006) Orangutan Positional Behavior and the Nature of Arboreal Locomotion in Hominoidea Susannah K.S. Thorpe1* and Robin H. Crompton2 1School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK 2Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GE, UK KEY WORDS Pongo pygmaeus; posture; orthograde clamber; forelimb suspend ABSTRACT The Asian apes, more than any other, are and orthograde compressive locomotor modes are ob- restricted to an arboreal habitat. They are consequently an served more frequently. Given the complexity of orangu- important model in the interpretation of the morphological tan positional behavior demonstrated by this study, it is commonalities of the apes, which are locomotor features likely that differences in positional behavior between associated with arboreal living. This paper presents a de- studies reflect differences in the interplay between the tailed analysis of orangutan positional behavior for all age- complex array of variables, which were shown to influence sex categories and during a complete range of behavioral orangutan positional behavior (Thorpe and Crompton [2005] contexts, following standardized positional mode descrip- Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 127:58–78). With the exception tions proposed by Hunt et al. ([1996] Primates 37:363–387). of pronograde suspensory posture and locomotion, orang- This paper shows that orangutan positional behavior is utan positional behavior is similar to that of the African highly complex, representing a diverse spectrum of posi- apes, and in particular, lowland gorillas. This study sug- tional modes. Overall, all orthograde and pronograde sus- gests that it is orthogrady in general, rather than fore- pensory postures are exhibited less frequently in the pres- limb suspend specifically, that characterizes the posi- ent study than previously reported.
    [Show full text]
  • Verhaegen M. the Aquatic Ape Evolves
    HUMAN EVOLUTION Vol. 28 n.3-4 (237-266) - 2013 Verhaegen M. The Aquatic Ape Evolves: Common Miscon- Study Center for Anthropology, ceptions and Unproven Assumptions About Mechelbaan 338, 2580 Putte, the So-Called Aquatic Ape Hypothesis Belgium E-mail: [email protected] While some paleo-anthropologists remain skeptical, data from diverse biological and anthropological disciplines leave little doubt that human ancestors were at some point in our past semi- aquatic: wading, swimming and/or diving in shallow waters in search of waterside or aquatic foods. However, the exact sce- nario — how, where and when these semi-aquatic adaptations happened, how profound they were, and how they fit into the KEY WORDS: human evolution, hominid fossil record — is still disputed, even among anthro- Littoral theory, Aquarboreal pologists who assume some semi-aquatic adaptations. theory, aquatic ape, AAT, Here, I argue that the most intense phase(s) of semi-aquatic Archaic Homo, Homo erectus, adaptation in human ancestry occurred when populations be- Neanderthal, bipedalism, speech longing to the genus Homo adapted to slow and shallow littoral origins, Alister Hardy, Elaine diving for sessile foods such as shellfish during part(s) of the Morgan, comparative biology, Pleistocene epoch (Ice Ages), possibly along African or South- pachyosteosclerosis. Asian coasts. Introduction The term aquatic ape gives an incorrect impression of our semi-aquatic ancestors. Better terms are in my opinion the coastal dispersal model (Munro, 2010) or the littoral theory of human evolution, but although littoral seems to be a more appropriate biologi- cal term here than aquatic, throughout this paper I will use the well-known and common- ly used term AAH as shorthand for all sorts of waterside and semi-aquatic hypotheses.
    [Show full text]
  • Fleagle and Lieberman 2015F.Pdf
    15 Major Transformations in the Evolution of Primate Locomotion John G. Fleagle* and Daniel E. Lieberman† Introduction Compared to other mammalian orders, Primates use an extraordinary diversity of locomotor behaviors, which are made possible by a complementary diversity of musculoskeletal adaptations. Primate locomotor repertoires include various kinds of suspension, bipedalism, leaping, and quadrupedalism using multiple pronograde and orthograde postures and employing numerous gaits such as walking, trotting, galloping, and brachiation. In addition to using different locomotor modes, pri- mates regularly climb, leap, run, swing, and more in extremely diverse ways. As one might expect, the expansion of the field of primatology in the 1960s stimulated efforts to make sense of this diversity by classifying the locomotor behavior of living primates and identifying major evolutionary trends in primate locomotion. The most notable and enduring of these efforts were by the British physician and comparative anatomist John Napier (e.g., Napier 1963, 1967b; Napier and Napier 1967; Napier and Walker 1967). Napier’s seminal 1967 paper, “Evolutionary Aspects of Primate Locomotion,” drew on the work of earlier comparative anatomists such as LeGros Clark, Wood Jones, Straus, and Washburn. By synthesizing the anatomy and behavior of extant primates with the primate fossil record, Napier argued that * Department of Anatomical Sciences, Health Sciences Center, Stony Brook University † Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University 257 You are reading copyrighted material published by University of Chicago Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. fig. 15.1 Trends in the evolution of primate locomotion.
    [Show full text]
  • Ontogeny of Postcranial Morphology and Locomotor Behavior in Propithecus Verreauxi Coquereli and Lemur Catta Stephanie Ann Wolf James Madison University
    James Madison University JMU Scholarly Commons Masters Theses The Graduate School Spring 2011 Ontogeny of postcranial morphology and locomotor behavior in Propithecus verreauxi coquereli and Lemur catta Stephanie Ann Wolf James Madison University Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/master201019 Part of the Biology Commons Recommended Citation Wolf, Stephanie Ann, "Ontogeny of postcranial morphology and locomotor behavior in Propithecus verreauxi coquereli and Lemur catta" (2011). Masters Theses. 371. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/master201019/371 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the The Graduate School at JMU Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of JMU Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Ontogeny of postcranial morphology and locomotor behavior in Propithecus verreauxi coquereli and Lemur catta Stephanie Ann Wolf A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Science Department of Biology May 2011 This thesis is dedicated with sincere gratitude to my mother, Debra Wolf. ii Acknowledgements Numerous people have committed time and energy allowing for the completion of this thesis. Foremost among them is my graduate advisor Dr. Roshna Wunderlich. I would like to thank her for her patience, advice, and dedication to this project, and the valuable hours she spent working with me. I additionally want to thank her for agreeing to take me on as a graduate student, despite already having another graduate student and many undergraduates in her lab to advise.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Evolution John Hawks
    © Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical means without prior written permission of the publisher. II.18 Human Evolution John Hawks OUTLINE diversity of genera, but most are now included within Australopithecus. 1. Origin of the hominins Hominins. Modern humans and extinct species more 2. Early Homo closely related to humans than to chimpanzees or 3. Neanderthals and the origin of modern humans gorillas. 4. Recent human evolution Oldowan. The earliest stone tool industry, which emerged about 2.6 million years ago and persisted until about Living humans are the sole living representatives of a 1.6 million years ago, when it was replaced by the lineage, the hominins, which diverged from other living more sophisticated Acheulean technology. apes 5 to 7 million years ago. Hominins remained limited Orthograde. An upright posture associated with a bi- to Africa for two-thirds of their history. With chimpan- pedal gait, such as occurs in modern humans. zee-sized bodies and brains, early hominins diversified Pronograde. The posture of holding the body parallel to into several lineages with different dietary strategies. the ground, such as is typical of most quadrupedal One of these found a path toward technology, food shar- vertebrates. ing, and hunting and gathering, giving rise to our genus, Homo, approximately 2 million years ago. As popula- While Darwin avoided discussion of the evolution of tions of Homo spread throughout the world, they gave humans in On the Origin of Species, he soon tackled the rise to regional populations with their own anatomical issue in The Descent of Man, which defined the starting and genetic distinctiveness.
    [Show full text]
  • Man's Erect Posture.Pdf
    21 MAN'S ERECT POSTURE J. L. PACE, B.Pharm., M.D., Ph.D. Lond., Departm~nt of Anatomy, Royal University of Malta. This is an abridged version of a Public limbs beoome .the only support of the body. Lecture giv,en under the auspices of the These characteristic stages in the develop~ Royal University of Malta Biological So­ ment of the upright or orthograde posture ciety in November 1969. culminate in the evolution of plantigrade Man when fore-limbs and hind-limbs ao­ This leoture is an attempt to desoribe quire human oharacteristics and the typi­ briefly how, when and where Man oame cal poise of the head is attained. by his ereot attitude. Though the upright posture is one of Man's posture has evolved through 3 the great and most oonspiouous of human stages. In the Hylobatian stage the pro­ oharaoteristios, several animals, as the nograde monkey differentiated into the squirrel, bear, kangaroo and some of the gibbon, a small anthropoid which is ortho­ monkeys and apes, oan maintain their grade in its gait, holding the body upright trunk upright; even some of the extinot in the phase of progression, but which dinosaurs are known to have walked up­ rests and even sleeps in the sitting posi­ right. In this oonneotion it is interesting tion. In the Troglodyte stage the small that surveys have oonstantly shown that anthropoids differentiated into the great the animals most favourite with ohildren anthropoids (e.g. ohimpanzee, gorilla and are those whose postures are in some orangutan), animals which, being heavier, ways or at some times rather vertical, as have a more marked orthograde posture the ohimpanzee, the monkey, as well as and gait, and which rest only when the the penguin, the most vertical of all birds.
    [Show full text]
  • Locomotion and Posture from the Common Hominoid Ancestor to Fully Modern Hominins, with Special Reference to the Last Common Panin/Hominin Ancestor R
    J. Anat. (2008) 212, pp501–543 doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7580.2008.00870.x REVIEWBlackwell Publishing Ltd Locomotion and posture from the common hominoid ancestor to fully modern hominins, with special reference to the last common panin/hominin ancestor R. H. Crompton,1 E. E. Vereecke1 and S. K. S. Thorpe2 1School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Liverpool, Sherrington Buildings, Ashton Street, Liverpool L69 3GE, UK 2School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT Abstract Based on our knowledge of locomotor biomechanics and ecology we predict the locomotion and posture of the last common ancestors of (a) great and lesser apes and their close fossil relatives (hominoids); (b) chimpanzees, bonobos and modern humans (hominines); and (c) modern humans and their fossil relatives (hominins). We evaluate our propositions against the fossil record in the context of a broader review of evolution of the locomotor system from the earliest hominoids of modern aspect (crown hominoids) to early modern Homo sapiens. While some early East African stem hominoids were pronograde, it appears that the adaptations which best characterize the crown hominoids are orthogrady and an ability to abduct the arm above the shoulder – rather than, as is often thought, manual suspension sensu stricto. At 7–9 Ma (not much earlier than the likely 4–8 Ma divergence date for panins and hominins, see Bradley, 2008) there were crown hominoids in southern Europe which were adapted to moving in an orthograde posture, supported primarily on the hindlimb, in an arboreal, and possibly for Oreo- pithecus, a terrestrial context. By 7 Ma, Sahelanthropus provides evidence of a Central African hominin, panin or possibly gorilline adapted to orthogrady, and both orthogrady and habitually highly extended postures of the hip are evident in the arboreal East African protohominin Orrorin at 6 Ma.
    [Show full text]
  • Ideas in Ecology and Evolution 1: 1-10, 2008
    1 11: 47–60, 2018 2 doi: 10.4033/iee.2018.11.6.n 3 © 2018 The Author 4 iee Received 5 June 2018; Accepted 1 October 2018 5 6 7 8 New Idea 9 10 11 The sexual selection of hominin bipedalism 12 13 14 Michael T. Dale 15 16 Michael T. Dale ([email protected]), Department of Philosophy, The University of Texas at Austin, 2210 17 Speedway, C3500, Austin, TX, USA 78712 18 19 20 Abstract Introduction 21 22 In this article, I advance a novel hypothesis on the Why did our hominin ancestors become bipedal? As it 23 evolution of hominin bipedalism. I begin by arguing is likely that bipedalism preceded the expansion of the 24 extensively for how the transition to bipedalism must brain, language, tool-use, loss of body hair, and many 25 have been problematic for hominins during the Neogene. other traits idiosyncratic to Homo sapiens (Tuttle 2014), 26 Due to this and the fact that no other primate has made bipedalism is perhaps the first step (!) in the development 27 the unusual switch to bipedalism, it seems likely that the of modern humanity. While many hypotheses have been 28 selection pressure towards bipedalism was unusually put forward, none have made a thoroughly convincing 29 strong. With this in mind, I briefly lay out some of the case, and thus this pivotal transition in our evolutionary 30 most promising hypotheses on the evolutionary origin of history remains a mystery. 31 hominin bipedalism and show how most, if not all, fail in In this article, I advance a novel hypothesis regarding 32 the face of the need for an unusually strong selection the evolution of hominin bipedalism.
    [Show full text]
  • Locomotion, Posture, and the Foramen Magnum in Primates : Reliability of Indices and Insights Into Hominin Bipedalism
    This is a repository copy of Locomotion, posture, and the foramen magnum in primates : Reliability of indices and insights into hominin bipedalism. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/168279/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Landi, Federica, Profico, Antonio orcid.org/0000-0003-2884-7118, Veneziano, Alessio et al. (2 more authors) (2020) Locomotion, posture, and the foramen magnum in primates : Reliability of indices and insights into hominin bipedalism. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY. e23170. ISSN 0275-2565 https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.23170 Reuse Items deposited in White Rose Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. The publisher or other rights holders may allow further reproduction and re-use of the full text version. This is indicated by the licence information on the White Rose Research Online record for the item. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ 1 Title: 2 Locomotion, posture and the foramen magnum in primates: reliability of indices and 3 insights into hominin bipedalism 4 5 Short title: 6 Foramen magnum, locomotion and posture 7 8 Federica Landi* 1, Antonio Profico 2, Alessio Veneziano
    [Show full text]
  • Joint Provides Insight Into Human Bipedal Locomotion
    COMPARATIVE DIGITAL EXAMINATION OF THE TALOCRURAL (ANKLE) JOINT PROVIDES INSIGHT INTO HUMAN BIPEDAL LOCOMOTION by ALLISON ZIMMERMAN Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Sciences Department of Biology CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY May, 2013 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the thesis of Allison Marie Zimmerman candidate for the Master of Sciences degree*. Dr. Jean Burns (Chair of the Committee) Dr. Scott Simpson Dr. Bruce Latimer Dr. Darin Croft 18 March 2013 *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein 2 Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5 ABSTRACT 6 I. BACKGROUND INFORMATION 7 TALOCRURAL JOINT 7 SYNOVIAL JOINTS 13 BONE SCALING 14 QUADRUPEDAL LOCOMOTION 15 FOSSIL HISTORY OF BIPEDALISM 17 BIPEDAL LOCOMOTION 20 INTRODUCTION 23 II. APPLICATION OF 3-DIMENSIONAL MORPHOMETRICS 25 INTRODUCTION 25 METHODS 28 DIGITAL ANALYSIS OF THE TIBIA 30 DIGITAL ANALYSIS OF THE TALUS 31 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 32 III. CROSS-SPECIES COMPARISON AND EVOLUTION OF TALOCRURAL JOINT MECHANICS 33 INTRODUCTION 33 PRIMATES 34 FOSSIL SPECIES 38 URSIDS AND FELIDS 38 JOINT MECHANICS 41 METHODS 42 TIBIA 44 TALUS 45 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 47 MORPHOLOGICAL COMPARISON 47 IV. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS 55 REFERENCES 60 3 List of Figures Figure 1.1. Basic construction of the talocrural joint ...........................................................7 Figure 1.2. Ligaments of the talocrural joint .....................................................................10 Figure 1.3. Dorsiflexion at the talocrural joint ..................................................................11 Figure 1.4. Plantarflexion at the talocrural joint ................................................................11 Figure 1.5. Three types of muscular contraction ...............................................................12 Figure 1.6.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 CURRICULUM VITAE Liza J. Shapiro Department Of
    CURRICULUM VITAE Liza J. Shapiro Department of Anthropology 2201 Speedway, Stop C3200 University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX 78712 (512) 471-7533 [email protected] Professional Appointments: 2008-present Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin 2011-2014 Associate Chair, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin 1997-2008 Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin 1990-1997 Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin Editorial Appointments: 2005-2010 Associate Editor, American Journal of Physical Anthropology 2004-2007 Associate Editor, Journal of Human Evolution Education: Ph.D. 1991 Anthropology, State University of New York at Stony Brook. Dissertation: Functional Morphology of the Primate Spine with Special Reference to Orthograde Posture and Bipedal Locomotion. M.A. 1989 Anthropology, State University of New York at Stony Brook B.A. 1983 Anthropology/Psychology, State University of New York at Albany, Summa Cum Laude. Current Research: Functional morphology and evolution of primate locomotor adaptations Ontogeny of locomotion in primates Comparative anatomy and function of the vertebral musculoskeletal system in primates Kinematics of primate locomotion Reconstruction of locomotor behavior in fossil primates. Professional and Honor Society Memberships: American Association of Physical Anthropologists Texas Association of Biological Anthropologists Member, Clinicially Applied Rehabilitation Engineering (CARE) Initiative, UT Austin, Cockrell School of Engineering Phi Beta Kappa 1 Peer-reviewed publications: (Under review) Shapiro, L.J. and Russo, G.A. Vertebral morphology in hominoids II- The lumbar spine. In: Been E, Gómez-Olivencia A, and Kramer PA.(Eds). Spinal Evolution: Morphology, Function, and Pathology of the Spine in Hominoid Evolution.
    [Show full text]
  • How Did Humans Acquire Erect Bipedal Walking?
    ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCIENCE Review Vol. 127(1), 1–12, 2019 How did humans acquire erect bipedal walking? Tasuku KIMURA1* 1The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Received 25 September 2018; accepted 19 February 2019 Abstract Recent fossil records have suggested that human erect bipedal locomotion started in Africa probably more than 6 million years ago. However, debate continues regarding how locomotion was ac- quired by our prehuman ancestors. Fossils and the genetic traits of recent humans and animals cannot answer this question directly. Therefore, the present paper reviews acquisition models of human biped- alism and explanations regarding how humans acquired bipedalism based on a comparative kinesiology of contemporary mammal species. Nonhuman primates are adequate models of human bipedal acquisi- tion because of not only the phylogenetically close relationship with humans, but also the trend toward hindlimb dominance and orthograde positional behavior in daily life. Although dissimilar to the erect bipedalism seen in humans, nonhuman primates adopt bipedal positional behavior in the wild. All non- human primates use the arboreal environment, but some groups of species utilize the ground predomi- nantly. Compared with relatively terrestrial nonhuman primates, relatively arboreal primates show more similarities with humans in their bipedal locomotion. Comparisons among primate species and between nonhuman primates and nonprimate mammals indicate that human-like bipedal characteristics are strongly related to arboreal life. Our prehuman ancestors likely started and adapted to bipedal locomo- tion while living in trees; this process is referred to as the generalized arboreal activity model. When humans began terrestrial locomotion, they likely performed proficient bipedalism from the first step.
    [Show full text]