Talar trochlear morphology may not be a good skeletal indicator of locomotor behavior in humans and great apes.

ABSTRACT: To reconstruct locomotor behaviors of fossil hominins and understand the evolution of bipedal locomotion in the human lineage, it is important to clarify the functional morphology of the talar trochlea in humans and extant great apes. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the interspecific-differences of the talar trochlear morphology among humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans by means of cone frustum approximation to calculate an apical angle and geometric morphometrics for detailed variability in the shape of the talar trochlea. The apical angles in gorillas and orangutans were significantly greater than those in humans and chimpanzees, but no statistical difference was observed between humans and chimpanzees, indicating that the apical angle did not necessarily corr

SUBMITTER: Nozaki S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8674354 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature