Geological Setting and Age of
            <i>Australopithecus sediba</i>
            from Southern Africa

Dirks, Paul H.G.M.; Kibii, Job M.; Kuhn, Brian F.; Steininger, Christine; Churchill, Steven E.; Kramers, Jan D.; Pickering, Robyn; Farber, Daniel L.; Mériaux, Anne-Sophie; Herries, Andy I.R.; King, Geoffrey; Berger, Lee R.

doi:10.1126/science.1184950

Cited by 168 publications

(166 citation statements)

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“…sediba type skeletons were recovered from the Malapa site (meaning "homestead" in seSotho), situated roughly 15 km NNE of the well-known sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, and Kromdraai in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Detailed information regarding geology and dating of the site is in (16). www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 328 9 APRIL 2010…”

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confidence: 99%

Australopithecus sediba : A New Species of Homo -Like Australopith from South Africa

Berger

Ruiter

Churchill

et al. 2010

Science

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Despite a rich African Plio-Pleistocene hominin fossil record, the ancestry of Homo and its relation to earlier australopithecines remain unresolved. Here we report on two partial skeletons with an age of 1.95 to 1.78 million years. The fossils were encased in cave deposits at the Malapa site in South Africa. The skeletons were found close together and are directly associated with craniodental remains. Together they represent a new species of Australopithecus that is probably descended from Australopithecus africanus. Combined craniodental and postcranial evidence demonstrates that this new species shares more derived features with early Homo than any other australopith species and thus might help reveal the ancestor of that genus.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Australopithecus sediba : A New Species of Homo -Like Australopith from South Africa

Berger

Ruiter

Churchill

et al. 2010

Science

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520

317

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“…For example, Australopithecus sediba, a South African hominin living approximately 2 million years ago (Dirks et al, 2010), exhibits foot and ankle morphology suggestive of more ape-like foot postures (Desilva et al, 2012;Zipfel et al, 2011). These features include gracile calcaneal tubers, increased mid-foot mobility, medial plantar processes indicative of pedal grasping ability, and an ability to invert the foot similar to extant great apes during vertical climbing (Desilva et al, 2012;Zipfel et al, 2011).…”

Section: Evolutionary Implications Of Hs Walkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of plantigrady and heel-strike in the mechanics and energetics of human walking with implications for the evolution of the human foot

Webber

Raichlen

2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Human bipedal locomotion is characterized by a habitual heel-strike (HS) plantigrade gait, yet the significance of walking foot-posture is not well understood. To date, researchers have not fully investigated the costs of non-heel-strike (NHS) walking. Therefore, we examined walking speed, walk-to-run transition speed, estimated locomotor costs (lower limb muscle volume activated during walking), impact transient (rapid increase in ground force at touchdown) and effective limb length (ELL) in subjects (n=14) who walked at self-selected speeds using HS and NHS gaits. HS walking increases ELL compared with NHS walking since the center of pressure translates anteriorly from heel touchdown to toe-off. NHS gaits led to decreased absolute walking speeds (P=0.012) and walk-to-run transition speeds (P=0.0025), and increased estimated locomotor energy costs (P<0.0001) compared with HS gaits. These differences lost significance after using the dynamic similarity hypothesis to account for the effects of foot landing posture on ELL. Thus, reduced locomotor costs and increased maximum walking speeds in HS gaits are linked to the increased ELL compared with NHS gaits. However, HS walking significantly increases impact transient values at all speeds (P<0.0001). These trade-offs may be key to understanding the functional benefits of HS walking. Given the current debate over the locomotor mechanics of early hominins and the range of foot landing postures used by nonhuman apes, we suggest the consistent use of HS gaits provides key locomotor advantages to striding bipeds and may have appeared early in hominin evolution.

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“…There are also high levels of roughness in South Africa, a region previously considered to have relatively modest levels of tectonic activity (Wagner, 1927;McCarthy and Hancox, 2000) but now known to have evidence of recent faulting that has been overlooked in previous geological mapping (Bailey et al, 2010;Dirks et al, 2010). However, not all areas of roughness in South Africa are correlated with seismicity and this reflects the distinctive geological history of the region, where a general dome-like uplift of more than 1 km has occurred in the last 30 Ma or less, believed to be the result of expansion due to heat from the mantle acting on a stationary overlying plate or a mantle plume (e.g.…”

Section: Topographic Relief In (A) Is Based On Srtm 30 Data Colouredmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic landscapes and human dispersal patterns: tectonics, coastlines, and the reconstruction of human habitats

Bailey

King

2011

Quaternary Science Reviews

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Studies of the impact of physical environment on human evolution usually focus on climate as the main external forcing agent of evolutionary and cultural change. In this paper we focus on changes in the physical character of the landscape driven by geophysical processes as an equally potent factor. Most of the landscapes where finds of early human fossils and artefacts are concentrated are ones that have been subjected to high levels of geological instability, either because of especially active tectonic processes associated with faulting and volcanic activity or because of proximity to coastlines subject to dramatic changes of geographical position and physical character by changes of relative sea level. These processes can have both beneficial effects, creating ecologically attractive conditions for human settlement, and deleterious or disruptive ones, creating barriers to movement, disruption of ecological conditions, or hazards to survival. Both positive and negative factors can have powerful selective effects on human behaviour and patterns of settlement and dispersal. We consider both these aspects of the interaction, develop a framework for the reconstruction and comparison of landscapes and landscape change at a variety of scales, and illustrate this with selected examples drawn from Africa and Arabia.

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Geological Setting and Age of Australopithecus sediba from Southern Africa

Cited by 168 publications

References 20 publications

Australopithecus sediba : A New Species of Homo -Like Australopith from South Africa

Australopithecus sediba : A New Species of Homo -Like Australopith from South Africa

The role of plantigrady and heel-strike in the mechanics and energetics of human walking with implications for the evolution of the human foot

Dynamic landscapes and human dispersal patterns: tectonics, coastlines, and the reconstruction of human habitats

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