The Olduvai Hominid 8 foot: Adult or subadult?

Abstract

Olduvai Hominid 8 (OH 8), an articulating set of fossil hominin tarsal and metatarsal bones, is critical to interpretations of the evolution of hominin pedal morphology and bipedal locomotion. It has been suggested that OH 8 may represent the foot of a subadult and may be associated with the OH 7 mandible, the type specimen of Homo habilis. This assertion is based on the presence of what may be unfused distal metatarsal epiphyses. Accurately assessing the skeletal maturity of the OH 8 foot is important for interpretations of the functional morphology and locomotor behavior of Plio-Pleistocene hominins. In this study, we compare metatarsal fusion patterns and internal bone morphology of the lateral metatarsals among subadult hominines (85 modern humans, 48 Pan, and 25 Gorilla) to assess the likelihood that OH 8 belonged to either an adult or subadult hominin. Our results suggest that if OH 8 is indeed from a subadult, then it displays a metatarsal developmental pattern that is unobserved in our comparative sample. In OH 8, the fully fused base of the first metatarsal and the presence of trabecular bone at the distal ends of the second and third metatarsal shafts make it highly improbable that it belonged to a subadult, let alone a subadult that matches the developmental age of the OH 7 mandible. In total, the results of this study suggest that the OH 8 foot most likely belonged to an adult hominin.