Fibular diaphyseal curvature of the Jomon population

Anterior diaphyseal curvature of the femur and tibia has biomechanical consequences during unloaded uphill locomotion

“…Since then, widespread inter-and intra-specific variability in anterior limb bone curvature has been documented among humans and other hominins (Shackelford and Trinkaus, 2002;De Groote, 2011;Chapman et al, 2015;Macintosh et al, 2015;Brzobohatáet al, 2019), with Neanderthals in particular demonstrating high levels of femoral curvature relative to early (De Groote, 2008;De Groote, 2011) and/or more recent (Shackelford and Trinkaus, 2002;De Groote, 2011;Chapman et al, 2018) humans. Anterior limb bone curvature in both Neanderthals and humans, as well as among nonhuman primates, also consistently demonstrates significant correlations with limb bone robusticity (Shackelford and Trinkaus, 2002;Yamanaka et al, 2005;De Groote, 2008;De Groote, 2011;Macintosh et al, 2015;Hagihara, 2023), itself clearly linked to mechanical loading and mobility (Kontulainen et al, 2007;Weatherholt and Warden, 2016;Niinimäki et al, 2017;Macintosh and Stock, 2019). Temporal declines in anterior curvature from Neanderthals through Paleolithic and Mesolithic humans to recent modern humans (Shackelford and Trinkaus, 2002;Macintosh et al, 2015;Brzobohatáet al, 2019) do tend to parallel similar temporal declines in robusticity across these time periods (Ruff et al, 1993;Macintosh et al, 2014;Ruff et al, 2015), indicating that perhaps limb bone curvature shares similar functional relationships with loading.…”

“…As a result, we do not know the extent to which variation in fibular curvature might be contributing to observed differences in muscle kinetics in the current study. The little evidence that exists of inter-and intraindividual variation in fibular curvature among and between humans (Hagihara, 2023;Tümer et al, 2019) suggests at least some influence of environmental or developmental factors on its development, but virtually nothing is yet known about fibular morphology in relation to tibial curvature, or its impacts on muscle kinetics.…”