How did early hominins hold their heads? New evidence on head posture from the australopith cervical spine (original) (raw)

Considered individually, many aspects of early hominin cervical anatomy appear more similar to the African great apes than to humans, suggesting an ape-like pattern of load transfer, and by extension points to significant differences with human head carriage. However, when the australopith cervical spine is examined as a whole, rather than as separate isolated elements, a more human-like pattern emerges. In this context anatomical differences appear to have only insignificant functional implications and may be explained as developmental reciprocates of cranial base morphogenesis. Corroborating this observation is a nearly complete series of new cervical vertebrae from Australopithecus afarensis (KSD-VP-1/1) from Woranso-Mille, Ethiopia, dated to ~3.6 million years before present, which we compare to a sample of Homo sapiens (N=57), Pan troglodytes (20), Gorilla gorilla (20) Au afarensis (2) Au. sediba (2), Homo erectus (2), Pleistocene hominins from Sima de los Huesos (3), and Neandertals (7). The new Au. afarensis fossils from Woranso-Mille reveal an aggregate biomechanical and enthesopathological signature typical of Homo sapiens and present a surprisingly human-like kinematic signal. These lines of evidence evince a mode of head posture in early hominins very similar to modern humans as early as 3.6 million years ago.

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