Ancient humans footprints may mislead

Fossil footprints could provide a skewed view of how ancient animals — including early human ancestors similar to the famous Lucy fossil — walked, new research suggests.

In the past, paleontologists and anthropologists assumed the depth of the footprint correlated with the pressure used to create it. But the analysis, published March 19 in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, reveals that the heel tends to create a deeper indentation even when applying the same amount of pressure.

"We shouldn't necessarily expect the shape of a footprint to directly reflect the way the animal that made it walked," said study co-author Karl Bates, a biomechanics researcher at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom.

As a result, some conclusions about how early human ancestors walked upright may need some rethinking, Bates said. [...] MSNBC.com  

Reference: S. M. Bruijn, O. G. Meijer, P. J. Beek, and J. H. van Dieën. Assessing the stability of human locomotion: a review of current measures. J. R. Soc. Interface June 6, 2013 10 83 20120999; doi:10.1098/rsif.2012.0999 1742-5662