About this Research Topic
The evolution of upright walking is a hallmark trait distinguishing humans from other primates. Although bipedalism has a central role in human evolution, when, how, and under what selective pressures it evolved remain the longest-standing questions. Refining the extent of ‘normal’ variation in human musculoskeletal foot morphology and gait kinematics is receiving increasingly critical attention in these debates. Skeletal adaptations of early hominins suggest they balanced a mixed arboreal lifestyle, including climbing, with a terrestrial lifestyle, featuring bipedalism. While there are undoubtedly multiple solutions for achieving this balance, broadly speaking, bipedalism became the predominant locomotor mode in the human lineage soon after the emergence of genus Homo. Variations in modern human morphology and walking biomechanics are heavily influenced by mobility, which is partly a function of subsistence economy, substrates, use and type of footwear, and other biological factors (e.g., sex, age, and body mass). Neuromuscular and musculoskeletal pathologies resulting in gait abnormalities also can contribute to this variation. These sources of modern human variability provide opportunities to shed light on variation due to locomotor experimentation in our early hominin ancestors.
This Research Topic aims to collect articles that diachronically investigate human bipedalism focusing on:
1) Selective pressures (e.g., changing of landscapes, climate, ecology) and theories on the initial evolution of bipedalism (e.g., arboreal or terrestrial origin?).
2) Kinematic variability among hominins (e.g., australopiths, H. sapiens and H. neanderthalensis), with an emphasis on the consequences of variation in foot musculoskeletal morphology.
3) Obligate bipedalism in Homo and biomechanical challenges: from mobile foragers to sedentary groups traversing mountainous terrain to coastal plains.
4) Biomechanics of modern human walking gaits and the influence of abnormalities or pathologies (e.g., flatfoot, valgus knee, etc.) on musculoskeletal anatomy.
The themes of this Research Topic include open access papers on the evolution of human bipedalism and walking or anatomical variation among modern humans. We seek to blend morphological, biomechanical, and clinical points of view. Studies on bipedalism in non-humans for comparison with human bipedal kinematics/kinetics are also of interest. We welcome authors to submit from across relevant disciplines and contributions that cross-link different disciplines are especially targeted. We prioritize interdisciplinary and thematically focused work in Paleoanthropology, Biological Anthropology, Human Health, Comparative Anatomy, Biomechanics, Functional Morphology, Skeletal Plasticity, and Human Movement. Article types including method-driven research on modern humans, hominins, or comparative extant taxa, experiments/data collection and overviews of different time frames in human evolutionary history will be prioritized. Specific clinical case studies in modern contexts, but with evolutionary implications, also will be sought.
This Research Topic aims to collect articles that diachronically investigate human bipedalism focusing on:
1) Selective pressures (e.g., changing of landscapes, climate, ecology) and theories on the initial evolution of bipedalism (e.g., arboreal or terrestrial origin?).
2) Kinematic variability among hominins (e.g., australopiths, H. sapiens and H. neanderthalensis), with an emphasis on the consequences of variation in foot musculoskeletal morphology.
3) Obligate bipedalism in Homo and biomechanical challenges: from mobile foragers to sedentary groups traversing mountainous terrain to coastal plains.
4) Biomechanics of modern human walking gaits and the influence of abnormalities or pathologies (e.g., flatfoot, valgus knee, etc.) on musculoskeletal anatomy.
The themes of this Research Topic include open access papers on the evolution of human bipedalism and walking or anatomical variation among modern humans. We seek to blend morphological, biomechanical, and clinical points of view. Studies on bipedalism in non-humans for comparison with human bipedal kinematics/kinetics are also of interest. We welcome authors to submit from across relevant disciplines and contributions that cross-link different disciplines are especially targeted. We prioritize interdisciplinary and thematically focused work in Paleoanthropology, Biological Anthropology, Human Health, Comparative Anatomy, Biomechanics, Functional Morphology, Skeletal Plasticity, and Human Movement. Article types including method-driven research on modern humans, hominins, or comparative extant taxa, experiments/data collection and overviews of different time frames in human evolutionary history will be prioritized. Specific clinical case studies in modern contexts, but with evolutionary implications, also will be sought.
Keywords: Bipedalism, Biomechanics, Functional Morphology, Human Evolution, Skeletal Plasticity, Biological Anthropology, Human Movement, Human Health
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
