Achievement

IGERT student Nicole Griffin worked with IGERT faculty (Richmond) to obtain high-resolution CT scans of ape and human foot bone joints. Coupled with observations collected in Belgium of foot function in living humans and apes, Nicole found that the microstructure of foot joints is unique in humans in ways that directly relate to our unique pattern of "toe-off" during gait. This research will help us test major debates about the origin and evolution of human walking in the earliest hominins. The study was published in the Journal of Human Evolution (Griffin et al, 2010, 59: 202-213).