Pliocene hominid gait: New interpretations based on available footprint data from Laetoli

Abstract

Normative trends in the gait patterns of modern man can be used to reconstruct crucial characteristics of the bipedal behaviour of Pliocene hominids from their fossilized footprints. In this reconstruction the interrelated parameters of velocity, stride-length, and cadence are determined from imprints made in damp volcanic ash some 3.7 million years ago. When early hominid footprint data is fitted to regression equations of high predictability for the interrelationship of these locomotor parameters in modern man, a pattern of gait emerges that contradicts previous reconstructions.