title: Early hominin foot morphology based on 1.5-million-year-old footprints from Ileret, Kenya.
abstract: Hominin footprints offer evidence about gait and foot shape, but their scarcity, combined with an inadequate hominin fossil record, hampers research on the evolution of the human gait. Here, we report hominin footprints in two sedimentary layers dated at 1.51 to 1.53 million years ago (Ma) at Ileret, Kenya, providing the oldest evidence of an essentially modern human-like foot anatomy, with a relatively adducted hallux, medial longitudinal arch, and medial weight transfer before push-off. The size of the Ileret footprints is consistent with stature and body mass estimates for Homo ergaster/erectus, and these prints are also morphologically distinct from the 3.75-million-year-old footprints at Laetoli, Tanzania. The Ileret prints show that by 1.5 Ma, hominins had evolved an essentially modern human foot function and style of bipedal locomotion.
authors.affiliation: School of Conservation Sciences, Bournemouth University, Poole, BH12 5BB, UK. mbennett@bmth.ac.uk
authors.forename: Matthew R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.forename: John W K
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: Brian G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Richmond
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mbua
authors.forename: Purity
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kiura
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Olago
authors.forename: Mzalendo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kibunjia
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Omuombo
authors.forename: Anna K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Behrensmeyer
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huddart
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D049628:Body Size; D005528:Foot / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D005580:Fossils; D005684:Gait; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D006214:Hallux / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D015186:Hominidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007630:Kenya; D008124:Locomotion; D011312:Pressure; D012984:Software; D014034:Toes / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology