Animated breathing motion of the ribcages of the Turkana Boy (KNM-WT 15000; Homo erectus; left) and a modern human (right), both shown in frontal view. We used the same ranges of motion in both rib cages, but the shape of the ribs and vertebrae in Homo erectus produce a different kinematic pattern, with lesser rib elevation, than in modern humans. Licence CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0; Copyright Benoit Beyer.
See: Behind the Paper post
Please sign in or register for FREE
If you are a registered user on Research Communities by Springer Nature, please sign in
Thanks a lot for this. The very wide & large thorax of Turkana Boy is not unexpected: most if not all archaic Homo had very large thoraxes, not for running long distances as often assumed, but rather for collecting shallow-water foods such as shellfish (rich in brain-specific nutrients, e.g. DHA). Turkana Boy fossilized in former lake, where they not only waded bipedally but also regularly dived for shallow-aquatic foods, for scientific references google e.g. "coastal dispersal of Pleistocene Homo 2018 Verhaegen".