Differences between humans and extant apes in the pelvis and its key muscle attachment
sites are thought to reflect a trade-off between arboreal and bipedal locomotor abilities.
Human pelvic morphology enables the hamstrings to effectively power the hip
hyperextension necessary for efficient bipedal locomotion, but this morphology is
thought to reduce the capacity of these muscles to powerfully extend the hip when in a
flexed position typical of arboreal locomotion. This research tested whether the enlarged
human gluteus maximus may have been shaped by the continued importance of climbing
among humans, as it has been suggested that it plays a compensatory role during
powerful hip extension due to the reduced ability of the hamstrings. Musculoskeletal
modeling and electromyography were used to assess the relative function of the gluteus
maximus and the hamstrings in a human participant across two movement trials that
required different amounts of hip extension: 1) bipedal walking, and 2) standing from a
deep squat. It was hypothesized that the gluteus maximus would perform more
effectively than the hamstrings to power hip extension from the flexed position of the
squat. Differences in relative muscle activity across the two motions support this
hypothesis in general, and implications for the evolutionary significance of the human
gluteus maximus are that this muscle plays an important and likely compensatory role
with the hamstrings during both standing up from a squat and bipedal walking. Results
support the growing body of research that indicates that it is important to consider a
broader range of human locomotive repertoires as of evolutionary significance, beyond
solely terrestrial bipedal locomotion. / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/14110 |
| Date | 19 August 2022 |
| Creators | Dias, Rae |
| Contributors | Murray, Alison, Giles, Joseph |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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