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Specifics of female locomotion from ecological and evolutionary perspective
Matějovská, Zuzana ; Hora, Martin (advisor) ; Brůžek, Jaroslav (referee)
This thesis will introduce the specifics of female locomotion, describe the level of morphological sexual dimorphism, and determine their effects on human locomotion. First of all, the thesis focuses on human sexual dimorphism in morphology and compares it with sexual dimorphism in primates. It focuses primarily on body size and proportions, lower limb length, and the pelvis. Additionally, the thesis analyses how sexual dimorphism explains the female costs of locomotion, optimal speed, and the differences in locomotion during pregnancy, infant carrying, and load carrying. Finally, the thesis analyses obstetrical dilemma hypothesis, which posits that the shape of the human female pelvis reflects an evolutionary trade-off between two competing demands, childbirth and bipedal locomotion. In light of new evidence, we concluded that human childbirth may not be limited by bipedalism as posited by the original hypothesis. Key words: sexual dimorphism, optimal walking speed, cost of transport, pregnancy, obstetrical dilemma, transport
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Development of human postcranial skeleton depending on terrain
Turková, Eliška ; Sládek, Vladimír (advisor) ; Hora, Martin (referee)
A human bone is a dynamic structure that changes tissue arrangement according to inner and outer stimuli. The outer stimuli include among others the mechanical, environmental, and climatic ones. The impact of mechanical stimuli on the bones shows already with natural activities such as walking and running through change in the shape of a transverse bone cross section. The changes in the bone cross section can be observed on bone findings of ancient populations. The cross section shape of the long bones of lower extremities changes from the Palaeolithic to Neolithic population in such a way that the circulation of transverse cross-section increases. The explanation of this trend lies in the change of subsistence strategies from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic era. The subsistence economy of the Palaeolithic population demanded more movement in comparison to the Neolithic population that lived a more sedentary lifestyle. This trend might be challenged by few bone findings of the Neolithic population from the mountain regions (e.g. Liguria, Italy) whose transverse bone cross section are more of a elliptic shape. Those excavations are mostly situated in the mountain regions with a demanding terrain. The outcomes presented in this study suggest that terrain is one of the factors that affect the...
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Importance of endurance running in human evolution
Hola, Tomáš ; Hora, Martin (advisor) ; Brůžek, Jaroslav (referee)
Human evolution and the evolution of our appearance in time is a research subject for a long time. This work summarizes existing studies, opinions and knowledge about possible importance of endurance running in the human evolution. This work analyzes possible benefits of the orientation on the endurance running and adaptations that are pointing on a possibility of the orientation on the endurance running by early Homo. In the first part of my work I will focus on the possible use of endurance running by early Homo. I will analyze a possibility of using the endurance running for scavenging and in competition with other predators for carcasses. In the next part I will analyze possibilities of using endurance running for persistance hunting. Early Homo could hunt down their prey, drive it to exhaustion and then kill it from close range. In the second part of my work I will analyze adaptations that could allow early Homo to practice endurance running. I will analyze adaptations in thermoregulation, that allow to dissipate heat generated by running. Then I will analyze energetic costs and adaptations that are decreasing energetic cost of running. Finally I will analyze anatomical adaptations that allow running, e.g. by keeping stability of human body. Key words: Thermoregulation, early Homo, human evolution,...
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The Influence of Footwear on Running Style and Injuries
Kolovecká, Michaela ; Hora, Martin (advisor) ; Soumar, Libor (referee)
In recent years running has become a very popular sport. Therefore it is nowadays often discussed whether it is shod running or barefoot running that is better. The aim of this thesis is to provide a summary of scientific pieces of knowledge on the effect of footwear on running style and related injuries. The introduction chapter describes the basics of running techniques and progressive development of running styles in relation to the development of running footwear. The following chapters describe in detail results of studies about the impact of footwear on kinematics, foot strike pattern and ground reaction forces, muscular activity and the running economy. Other chapters deal with the influence of footwear as a source of running related injuries while the most common running injuries are subsequently analysed. The last part is a practical section. It is a questionnaire study in which in total 93 runners participated. The conclusion summarizes the essential pieces of knowledge on the topic of footwear influence on running style and related injuries which are compared with the results collected in the questionnaire.
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Throwing ability in human evolution
Struška, Michal ; Sládek, Vladimír (advisor) ; Hora, Martin (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to describe the origin of bone markers that characterize individuals who throw habitually and the usability of these markers in research of past populations. The thesis also summarizes knowledge of the origin and development of projectile weapons in Pleistocene. The effectiveness (accuracy and speed) of throw is probably related to differences in morphology of pectoral girdle, torso and hand. Therefore, a part of the text summarizes the morphology of pectoral girdle, torso and hand in the species H. erectus, which was probably the first group of hominins able to throw with effectiveness close to the one of anatomically modern humans. The development of projectile technology, which came after the adoption of effective throwing ability, is usually inferred from archaeological findings of spears and arrows. Various interpretations of archaeologically found weapons bring different conclusions regarding the usage of these weapons. The usage may be inferred from bone characteristics originating as consequences of moves that individual executes when manipulating weapons.
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Lower limb proportions and energetic cost of locomotion in Upper Pleistocene humans
Hora, Martin ; Sládek, Vladimír (advisor) ; Jelen, Karel (referee) ; Jandačka, Daniel (referee)
Previous studies proposed that Neandertals had one third higher energetic cost of locomotion than anatomically modern humans. Greater cost of locomotion could disadvantage Neandertals in competition with anatomically modern humans and could be a factor in their extinction. Greater cost of Neandertal locomotion was ascribed to their shorter lower limb and greater body mass. However, Neandertals differed also in other morphological parameters that were not considered in estimation of their locomotor cost. In this dissertation we model locomotor cost of Neandertals and anatomically modern humans using previously described relation between muscle force production and energetic cost of movement. We estimate the key locomotor parameters using a model developed by us from osteometric data from literature (n =50) and from our measurement (n = 21), and from kinematic data of 26 individuals. Further, we analyze the effect of relative lower limb length (in relation to body mass) and crural index on energetic cost of locomotion. Our results suggest that walking of Neandertal males was 9-14% energetically more demanding than walking of anatomically modern males. Nevertheless, the walking cost of Neandertal females was similar to that of anatomically modern females. Inclusion of lower limb proportions into the...
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Extreme sport performances of top athletes from the perspective of evolutionary anthropology
Novák, Hynek ; Brůžek, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Hora, Martin (referee)
This paper is focused on searching through contemporary observations and opinions, related to evolution of anatomicaly modern humans. Questions like whether the human evolution already ceased, or could be considered for still ongoing process, have been tried to answer here. Is it relevant to link steadily increasing performance of olympic athletes with human evolution and is it possible to make some conclusions from such phenomena? It is another key question I tried to solve in this work. Firstly before attempting to make some conclusions, it was necessary to involve chapters concerning evolution of humankind, evolutionary history of certain types of physical activity and current trends in athletic performance as well. Keywords human evolution, athletic performance, civilization diseases, olympic athletes, future of human, physical activity
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Shape and size of the auricular surface of human coxal bone: sexual dimorphism and evolutionary aspects
Vejnarová, Rebeka ; Brůžek, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Hora, Martin (referee)
Sacroiliac joint connects pelvic girdle and resists the pressure of the trunk. Surrounding structures are also subjects to selective pressure of birth adaptations. The aim of this study was to verify the shape and size sexual dimorphism of the auricular surface of modern human. The basis of this work was the only published geometric-morphometric study of this structure (Anastasiou and Chamberlain, 2013). We also analyzed evolutionary changes in the size of the auricular surface related to the increase in the body weight in hominins. The basis of this part of the thesis is to verify a rectangular method of computation of the auricular area, which simplifies its shape and was applied to the fossil material (Reed and Churchill, 2013). We used casts of the auricular surface from human hip bone of 97 modern people from osteological collections of Spitalfields and Coimbra, which have documentation about sex and age, and 8 casts of fossil hominins. Auricular surface was photographed and analyzed by methods of geometric morphometrics (sliding semilandmarks). From the marked area the precise surface size was computed. The success rate of sex classification was tested by a technique of support vector machine with crossvalidations. The shape and size sexual dimorphism of the auricular surface was confirmed. In women,...
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Locomotion, thermoregulation and growth factors in lower limb proportions in human evolution
Čerevková, Simona ; Sládek, Vladimír (advisor) ; Hora, Martin (referee)
The aim of this thesis was to introduce the influence of locomotion, climate, environment and growth factors on lower limb proportions in the context of human evolution. In this work, we examine the manner of locomotion in relation to morphology and lower limb proportions in early hominins (Orrorin, Ardipithecus), australopithecines and the Plio-Pleistocene representatives of the genus Homo. Furthermore, we mention findings about the energetic costs of bipedal locomotion of the Neanderthals and anatomically modern human. An influence of climate and environment on crural index values of past and present human populations was observed. We also show an impact of growth factors on human body parameters using examples related to secular trend, the effect of craniocaudal gradient and subsistence strategy. The thesis was enhanced with a practical part focussed on intersexual variability of the most distal part of lower limb skeleton. The results showed that there was not a significant difference in relative metatarsal lengths between men and women. Key words: locomotion, thermoregulation, climate, lower limb proportions, hominins, Neanderthals, anatomically modern human
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