Hip bone trabecular architecture shows uniquely distinctive locomotor behaviour in South African australopithecines

Abstract

Cancellous bone retains structural and behavioural properties which are time and strain-rate dependent. As the orientation of the trabeculae (trajectories) follows the direction of the principal strains imposed by daily loadings, habitual postural and locomotor behaviours are responsible for a variety of trabecular architectures and site-specific textural arrangements of the pelvic cancellous network. With respect to the great ape condition, the human trabecular pattern is characterized by a distinctive ilioischial bundle, an undivided sacropubic bundle, and a full diagonal crossing (approximately 100 degrees) over the acetabulum between the ilioischial and the sacropubic bundles. Advanced digital image processing (DIP) of hip bone radiographs has revealed that adolescent and adult South African australopithecines retained an incompletely developed human-like trabecular pattern associated with gait-related features that are unique among the extant primates.