Metatarsal torsion in monkeys, apes, humans and australopiths

NewsBot · Dec 11, 2012

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Metatarsal torsion in monkeys, apes, humans and australopiths
Michelle S.M. Drapeau, Elizabeth H. Harmon
Journal of Human Evolution; Available online 4 December 2012

This paper presents an analysis of metatarsal torsion in apes, cercopithecoids and humans, compares australopiths with these species, and discusses their inferred foot morphology and function relative to prehensility, arboreality and the presence or absence of a longitudinal arch. Our results show that locomotor modes are reflected in metatarsal torsion values. Apes, which climb vertically with their foot inverted, have hallucal metatarsal heads that are turned toward the other toes and lateral toes that are inverted. Cercopithecoids, which tend to orient their feet in an axis more parallel to the line of motion, present signs of prehensility by having inverted 2nd metatarsals that oppose the hallux, while their two lateral-most metatarsals are strongly everted. Humans, with their rigid feet and longitudinal arches, have all toes that present their plantar surface toward the ground, resulting in hallucal and 2nd metatarsals that are relatively untwisted and the others that are strongly everted. Humans are different from all taxa only for the 2nd and 3rd metatarsal. It is hypothesized that the untwisted 2nd metatarsal reflects the lack of digit opposability of the medial foot and the strongly everted 3rd metatarsal reflects the longitudinal arch. Australopithecus afarensis was characterized by an everted lateral foot, the prerequisite for the development, but not necessarily an indicator, of a longitudinal arch. In Australopithecus africanus, torsion of fragmentary and complete 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th metatarsals suggest that the species did not have a foot with monkey- or ape-like prehensile capabilities and did not have a human-like longitudinal arch. In the Swartkrans remains, torsion is consistent with an unprehensile foot. The morphology of the fossils indicates that there was strong selection to orient the plantar surface of the toes facing the ground at the expense of a grasping foot and inversion ability.
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Admin2 · Dec 11, 2012

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NewsBot · Jun 14, 2014

Analysis of joint force and torque for the human and non-human ape foot during bipedal walking with implications for the evolution of the foot.
Wang W, Abboud RJ, Günther MM, Crompton RH.
J Anat. 2014 Jun 13.

The feet of apes have a different morphology from those of humans. Until now, it has merely been assumed that the morphology seen in humans must be adaptive for habitual bipedal walking, as the habitual use of bipedal walking is generally regarded as one of the most clear-cut differences between humans and apes. This study asks simply whether human skeletal proportions do actually enhance foot performance during human-like bipedalism, by examining the influence of foot proportions on force, torque and work in the foot joints during simulated bipedal walking. Skeletons of the common chimpanzee, orangutan, gorilla and human were represented by multi-rigid-body models, where the components of the foot make external contact via finite element surfaces. The models were driven by identical joint motion functions collected from experiments on human walking. Simulated contact forces between the ground and the foot were found to be reasonably comparable with measurements made during human walking using pressure- and force-platforms. Joint force, torque and work in the foot were then predicted. Within the limitations of our model, the results show that during simulated human-like bipedal walking, (1) the human and non-human ape (NHA) feet carry similar joint forces, although the distributions of the forces differ; (2) the NHA foot incurs larger joint torques than does the human foot, although the human foot has higher values in the first tarso-metatarsal and metatarso-phalangeal joints, whereas the NHA foot incurs higher values in the lateral digits; and (3) total work in the metatarso-phalangeal joints is lower in the human foot than in the NHA foot. The results indicate that human foot proportions are indeed well suited to performance in normal human walking.
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NewsBot · Jun 25, 2020

First Metatarsal Trabecular Bone Structure in Extant Hominoids and Swartkrans Hominins
Klara Komza, Matthew M Skinner
J Hum Evol. 2019 Jun;131:1-21

Changes in first metatarsal (MT1) morphology within the hominin clade are crucial for reconstructing the evolution of a forefoot adapted for human-like gait. Studies of the external morphology of the MT1 in humans, non-human apes, and fossil hominins have documented changes in its robusticity, epiphyseal shape and its articulation with the medial cuneiform. Here, we test whether trabecular structure in the MT1 reflects different loading patterns in the forefoot across extant large apes and humans, and within this comparative context, infer locomotor behavior in two fossil hominins from Swartkrans, South Africa. Microtomographic scans were collected from the MT1 of Pongo sp. (n = 6), Gorilla gorilla (n = 10), Pan troglodytes (n = 10), Homo sapiens (n = 11), as well as SKX 5017 (Paranthropus robustus), and SK 1813 (Hominin gen. sp. indet.). Trabecular structure was quantified within the head and base using a 'whole-epiphysis' approach with medtool 4.2. We found that modern humans displayed relatively higher bone volume fraction (BV/TV) in the dorsal region of each epiphysis and a higher overall degree of anisotropy (DA), whereas great apes showed higher BV/TV in the plantar regions, reflecting dorsiflexion at the metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint in the former and plantarflexion in the latter. Both fossils displayed low DA, with SKX 5017 showing a hyper-dorsal concentration of trabecular bone in the head (similar to humans), while SK 1813 showed a more central trabecular distribution not seen in either humans or non-human apes. Additionally, we found differences between non-human apes, modern humans, and the fossil taxa in trabecular spacing (Tb.Sp.), number (Tb.N.), and thickness (Tb.th.). While low DA in both fossils suggests increased mobility of the MT1, differences in their trabecular distributions could indicate variable locomotion in these Pleistocene hominins (recognizing that the juvenile status of SK 1813 is a potential confounding factor). In particular, evidence for consistent loading in hyper-dorsiflexion in SKX 5017 would suggest locomotor behaviors beyond human-like toe off during terrestrial locomotion.
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NewsBot · Jan 4, 2024

The relative size of the calcaneal tuber reflects heel strike plantigrady in African apes and humans
Thomas C Prang
Am J Biol Anthropol. 2023 Dec 6

Objectives: The positional repertoire of the human-chimpanzee last common ancestor is critical for reconstructing the evolution of bipedalism. African apes and humans share a heel strike plantigrade foot posture associated with terrestriality. Previous research has established that modern humans have a relatively large and intrinsically robust calcaneal tuber equipped to withstand heel strike forces associated with bipedal walking and running. However, it is unclear whether African apes have a relatively larger calcaneal tuber than non-heel-striking primates, and how this trait might have evolved among anthropoids. Here, I test the hypothesis that heel-striking primates have a relatively larger calcaneal tuber than non-heel-striking primates.

Methods: The comparative sample includes 331 individuals and 53 taxa representing hominoids, cercopithecoids, and platyrrhines. Evolutionary modeling was used to test for the effect of foot posture on the relative size of the calcaneal tuber in a phylogenetic framework that accounts for adaptation and inertia. Bayesian evolutionary modeling was used to identify selective regime shifts in the relative size of the calcaneal tuber among anthropoids.

Results: The best fitting evolutionary model was a Brownian motion model with regime-dependent trends characterized by relatively large calcaneal tubers among African apes and humans. Evolutionary modeling provided support for an evolutionary shift toward a larger calcaneal tuber at the base of the African ape and human clade.

Conclusions: The results of this study support the view that African apes and humans share derived traits related to heel strike plantigrady, which implies that humans evolved from a semi-terrestrial quadrupedal ancestor.
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