Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 340, Issue 6129, Pages -Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1232999
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Funding
- South African Department of Science and Technology
- African Origins Platform (AOP)
- South African National Research Foundation
- Evolutionary Studies Institute
- University of the Witwatersrand
- University of the Witwatersrand's Vice Chancellor's Discretionary Fund
- National Geographic Society
- Leakey Foundation
- Palaeontological Scientific Trust
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
- Ford Foundation
- U.S. Diplomatic Mission to South Africa
- French Embassy of South Africa
- A. H. Schultz Foundation, Boston University
- Duke University
- Ray A. Rothrock '77 Fellowship
- Texas AM University
- Oppenheimer and Ackerman families
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The discovery of a relatively complete Australopithecus sediba adult female skeleton permits a detailed locomotor analysis in which joint systems can be integrated to form a comprehensive picture of gait kinematics in this late australopith. Here we describe the lower limb anatomy of Au. sediba and hypothesize that this species walked with a fully extended leg and with an inverted foot during the swing phase of bipedal walking. Initial contact of the lateral foot with the ground resulted in a large pronatory torque around the joints of the foot that caused extreme medial weight transfer (hyperpronation) into the toe-off phase of the gait cycle (late pronation). These bipedal mechanics are different from those often reconstructed for other australopiths and suggest that there may have been several forms of bipedalism during the Plio-Pleistocene.
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