据2月27日的《科学》杂志报道，Matthew Bennett及其同僚说，对肯尼亚Ileret附近细沙中留下的古老脚印的分析表明，我们的祖先之一在至少150万年前就已经形成了现代人一样的步伐。
这些脚印是自人们在30年前在坦桑尼亚的Laetoli遗址所发现的375万年前的著名脚印之后的该类发现的第一例。Laetoli脚印证实了某些早期的人科动物是两足动物，但它们的步子具有某些猿类一样的特征，比如它们的大脚趾是向外张开的。Robin Huw Crompton 和 Todd Pataky 在一则相关的Perspective中对其进行了讨论。这次的对Ileret脚印的分析是在激光扫描的帮助下进行的，该脚印显示了现代人步伐的所有的特点：这是一只弓状的脚、大脚趾与其它脚趾呈顺列形式及在迈步时特征性地将体重从脚后跟转移到跖球再转移到大脚趾。
根据从这些足印得出的该人科动物的身高和体重所作的估计，这些脚印可能是由匠人/直立人（Homo ergaster/erectus）踏踩出来的。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Science 27 February 2009:DOI: 10.1126/science.1168132
Early Hominin Foot Morphology Based on 1.5-Million-Year-Old Footprints from Ileret, Kenya
Matthew R. Bennett,1* John W.K. Harris,2 Brian G. Richmond,3,4 David R. Braun,5 Emma Mbua,6 Purity Kiura,6 Daniel Olago,7 Mzalendo Kibunjia,6 Christine Omuombo,7 Anna K. Behrensmeyer,8 David Huddart,9 Silvia Gonzalez9
Hominin footprints offer evidence about gait and foot shape, but their scarcity, combined with an inadequate hominin fossil record, hampers research on the evolution of the human gait. Here, we report hominin footprints in two sedimentary layers dated at 1.51 to 1.53 million years ago (Ma) at Ileret, Kenya, providing the oldest evidence of an essentially modern human–like foot anatomy, with a relatively adducted hallux, medial longitudinal arch, and medial weight transfer before push-off. The size of the Ileret footprints is consistent with stature and body mass estimates for Homo ergaster/erectus, and these prints are also morphologically distinct from the 3.75-million-year-old footprints at Laetoli, Tanzania. The Ileret prints show that by 1.5 Ma, hominins had evolved an essentially modern human foot function and style of bipedal locomotion.
1 School of Conservation Sciences, Bournemouth University, Poole, BH12 5BB, UK.
2 Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, 131 George Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.
3 Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA.
4 Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013–7012, USA.
5 Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa.
6 National Museums of Kenya, Post Office Box 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.
7 Department of Geology, University of Nairobi, Post Office Box 30197, Nairobi, Kenya.
8 Department of Paleobiology, MRC 121, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 20013–7012, USA.
9 School of Biological and Earth Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK
