title: New footprints from Laetoli (Tanzania) provide evidence for marked body size variation in early hominins.
abstract: Laetoli is a well-known palaeontological locality in northern Tanzania whose outstanding record includes the earliest hominin footprints in the world (3.66 million years old), discovered in 1978 at Site G and attributed toAustralopithecus afarensis. Here, we report hominin tracks unearthed in the new Site S at Laetoli and referred to two bipedal individuals (S1 and S2) moving on the same palaeosurface and in the same direction as the three hominins documented at Site G. The stature estimates for S1 greatly exceed those previously reconstructed forAu. afarensisfrom both skeletal material and footprint data. In combination with a comparative reappraisal of the Site G footprints, the evidence collected here embodies very important additions to the Pliocene record of hominin behaviour and morphology. Our results are consistent with considerable body size variation and, probably, degree of sexual dimorphism within a single species of bipedal hominins as early as 3.66 million years ago.
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
authors.forename: Fidelis T
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: Masao
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
authors.forename: Elgidius B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Ichumbaki
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica e Geologia, Università di Perugia, Perugia, Italy.|PaleoFactory, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4291-4372
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cherin
authors.affiliation: Galleria di Storia Naturale, Centro d'Ateneo per i Musei Scientifici, Università di Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barili
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Boschian
authors.affiliation: PaleoFactory, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy.|Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Dawid A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Iurino
authors.affiliation: Studio Associato Grassi, Perugia, Italy.
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2136-5837
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Menconero
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Firenze, Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: Jacopo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moggi-Cecchi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Manzi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049628:Body Size; D015186:Hominidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D010641:Phenotype; D013636:Tanzania
keywords: Australopithecus afarensis; Hominini; Laetoli; Pliocene; body size estimates; evolutionary biology; footprints; genomics