Grupo de Estudos em Evolução Humana

Metatarsal fusion pattern and developmental morphology of the Olduvai Hominid 8 foot: Evidence of adolescence

Randall L. Susman a, Biren A. Patel a, Megan J. Francis b and Hugo F.V. Cardoso c, d

a Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8081, USA
b Department of Health Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8200, USA
c Museu Nacional de História Natural & Centro de Biologia Ambiental, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
d Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, Portugal


Abstract

The morphology of the Olduvai Hominid (OH) 8 foot and the sequence of metatarsal epiphyseal fusion in modern humans and chimpanzees support the hypothesis that OH 8 belonged to an individual of approximately the same relative age as the OH 7 subadult, the holotype of Homo habilis. Modern humans and chimpanzees exhibit a variety of metatarsal epiphyseal fusion patterns, including one identical to that observed in OH 8 in which metatarsal 1 fuses before metatarsals 2–5. More than the metatarsal fusion sequence, however, the principal evidence of the youthful age of OH 8 lies in the morphology of metatarsals 1, 2, and 3. Because both OH 8 and OH 7 come from the same stratum at the FLK NN type site, the most parsimonious explanation of the OH 8 and OH 7 data is that this material belonged to the same individual, as originally proposed by Louis Leakey. The proposition that OH 8 belonged to an adult is unsupported by morphology, including radiographic evidence, and the fusion sequences in human and chimpanzee skeletal material reported here and in the literature.

Keywords: Homo habilis; Hominin; Early Homo; Foot; Epiphysis; Metatarsal; OH 8

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