title: A new hominin foot from Ethiopia shows multiple Pliocene bipedal adaptations.
abstract: A newly discovered partial hominin foot skeleton from eastern Africa indicates the presence of more than one hominin locomotor adaptation at the beginning of the Late Pliocene epoch. Here we show that new pedal elements, dated to about 3.4 million years ago, belong to a species that does not match the contemporaneous Australopithecus afarensis in its morphology and inferred locomotor adaptations, but instead are more similar to the earlier Ardipithecus ramidus in possessing an opposable great toe. This not only indicates the presence of more than one hominin species at the beginning of the Late Pliocene of eastern Africa, but also indicates the persistence of a species with Ar. ramidus-like locomotor adaptation into the Late Pliocene.
authors.affiliation: The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA. yhailese@cmnh.org
authors.forename: Yohannes
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Haile-Selassie
authors.forename: Beverly Z
authors.initials: BZ
authors.lastname: Saylor
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deino
authors.forename: Naomi E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Levin
authors.forename: Mulugeta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alene
authors.forename: Bruce M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Latimer
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005002:Ethiopia; D005528:Foot / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D005529:Foot Bones / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D005580:Fossils; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology*; D015186:Hominidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*