| Title |
The foot of Homo naledi
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Nature Communications, October 2015
|
| DOI | 10.1038/ncomms9432 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
W. E. H. Harcourt-Smith, Z. Throckmorton, K. A. Congdon, B. Zipfel, A. S. Deane, M. S. M. Drapeau, S. E. Churchill, L. R. Berger, J. M. DeSilva |
| Abstract |
Modern humans are characterized by a highly specialized foot that reflects our obligate bipedalism. Our understanding of hominin foot evolution is, although, hindered by a paucity of well-associated remains. Here we describe the foot of Homo naledi from Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa, using 107 pedal elements, including one nearly-complete adult foot. The H. naledi foot is predominantly modern human-like in morphology and inferred function, with an adducted hallux, an elongated tarsus, and derived ankle and calcaneocuboid joints. In combination, these features indicate a foot well adapted for striding bipedalism. However, the H. naledi foot differs from modern humans in having more curved proximal pedal phalanges, and features suggestive of a reduced medial longitudinal arch. Within the context of primitive features found elsewhere in the skeleton, these findings suggest a unique locomotor repertoire for H. naledi, thus providing further evidence of locomotor diversity within both the hominin clade and the genus Homo. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 163 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 36 | 22% |
| United Kingdom | 16 | 10% |
| Canada | 7 | 4% |
| Spain | 7 | 4% |
| South Africa | 5 | 3% |
| Germany | 4 | 2% |
| France | 3 | 2% |
| Netherlands | 2 | 1% |
| Ireland | 2 | 1% |
| Other | 15 | 9% |
| Unknown | 66 | 40% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 127 | 78% |
| Scientists | 28 | 17% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 6 | 4% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 2 | 1% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 188 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | 3 | 2% |
| United States | 3 | 2% |
| Ireland | 1 | <1% |
| India | 1 | <1% |
| Italy | 1 | <1% |
| Japan | 1 | <1% |
| South Africa | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 177 | 94% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Bachelor | 36 | 19% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 31 | 16% |
| Student > Master | 28 | 15% |
| Researcher | 17 | 9% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 12 | 6% |
| Other | 39 | 21% |
| Unknown | 25 | 13% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 48 | 26% |
| Social Sciences | 27 | 14% |
| Arts and Humanities | 15 | 8% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 12 | 6% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 11 | 6% |
| Other | 37 | 20% |
| Unknown | 38 | 20% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 649. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 29 May 2022.
All research outputs
#33,681
of 25,576,801 outputs
Outputs from Nature Communications
#596
of 57,676 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#323
of 290,217 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature Communications
#3
of 759 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,576,801 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 57,676 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 55.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 759 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.