The shift during human evolution from quadrupedal locomotion in a pronograde position to bipedalism in an upright, orthograde position is associated with the fragmentation of wooded habitats. Standing and moving in an upright posture on two legs requires a number of adaptations to maintain balance of the whole body against the ground and also the head atop the vertebral column with minimal energetic cost. Bipedal locomotion in mammals has independently evolved within marsupials and rodents in addition to humans. This project will investigate the role of the redistribution of mass in the head of bipeds to bring the centre of mass of the head closer to the vertebral axis of the body, and so aid in maintaining the balance of the head and whole body when upright. This project will use CT data to quantify and map the mass distribution in the head of bipedal and quadrupedal primates, rodents and marsupials. An additional aim of the project is to reconstruct the mass distribution of the head in fossil hominins using fossil hominin crania to address the evolution of bipedalism in humans. The development of a validated method to reconstruct the missing soft tissue of the fossil crania will be necessary to understand the link between anatomical, behavioural and environmental changes associated with upright locomotion.
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[Website University of York]