Estimate of the lower-limb-specific muscle parameters during bipedal walking for humans,apes and early hominids with the implications for the evolution of body proportion

Modern human has different body proportion from early hominids and great apes.Comparing with others,in general,modern human adults have relatively long lower limb and heavier body weight.Since the lower limbs provide support to the whole body and play an important role in walking,it is proposed that the ratio of the lower limb to the whole body for modern human could be beneficial to bipedal walking.This study tried to estimate the muscle parameters of the lower limb in walking for the subjects with various body proportions.Using a simplified musculoskeletal model,some muscle parameters of the lower limb,e.g.muscle force,stress,work and power,were estimated for modern human adult,child,AL 288-1(the fossil specimens of Australopithecus afarensis,3.18 million years old)and apes.The results show that with the body proportion modern human adult spends less muscle work and power in walking than other subjects.The results imply that using the cost of transport(i.e.the muscle work of the lower limb per unit of displacement)as the criteria,the early hominids,if their body proportions were structurally similar to AL 288-1,could evolve towards what modern human adult looks like,in order to save energy during bipedal walking.

Modem human has different body proportion from early hominids and great apes. Comparing with others, in general, modem human adults have relatively long lower limb and heavier body weight. Since the lower limbs provide support to the whole body and play an important role in walking, it is proposed that the ratio of the lower limb to the whole body for modem human could be beneficial to bipedal walking. This study tried to estimate the muscle parameters of the lower limb in walking for the subjects with various body proportions. Using a simplified musculoskeletal model, some muscle parameters of the lower limb, e.g. muscle force, stress, work and power, were estimated for modem human adult, child, AL 288-1 （the fossil specimens of Australopithecus afarensis, 3.18 million years old） and apes. The results show that with the body proportion modem human adult spends less muscle work and power in walking than other subjects. The results imply that using the cost of transport （ i. e. the muscle work of the lower limb per unit of displacement） as the criteria, the early hominids, if their body proportions were structurally similar to AL 288-1, could evolve towards what modem human adult looks like, in order to save energy during bipedal walking.