HoBiS

HoBiS is a pluridisciplinary research project, fundamental in nature and centred on palaeoanthropological questions related to habitual bipedalism, one of the most striking features of the human lineage. Recent discoveries (up to 7 My) highlight an unexpected diversity of locomotor anatomies in Hominins that lead palaeoanthropologists to hypothesize that bipedalism in hominins took distinct shapes in the course of human evolution; these bipedal locomotions were not transitional nor inefficient, but on the contrary probably constituted efficient and well-coordinated positional modes. A much more complex scenario of hominin evolution than that proposed only few years ago thus emerges where knowledge on locomotor anatomy takes an increasing important role. HoBiS wants to shed new light on our phylogenetic history by integrating to these scenarios new knowledge on the possible bipedal capacities in relation to locomotor anatomy. As a main methodological objective and improvement in the field of Evolutionary Anthropology and Functional Anatomy, HoBiS wants to develop a totally new specimen-specific approach in evolutionary anthropology named Specimen-Specific Functional Morphology: a standardized and specimen-specific decision-support-system (DSS) that aims to better assess the form-function relationships based on partial anatomical knowledge. To achieve these objectives, HoBiS will integrate and improve fundamental and technical knowledge from various scientific fields: Hominin’ locomotor anatomy, comparative functional anatomy and biomechanics, as well as anatomical modelling and motion simulation, to address the following challenges: inferring plausible complete locomotor anatomies based on partial fossil remains, to link these reconstructed anatomies and corresponding musculoskeletal models (MSM) to plausible gait using simulation. Both challenges need to collect a wide database of comparative anatomy and gait biomechanics to calibrate and validate the system. In that aim, HoBiS gathers 5 French labs (3 partners) and 1 Belgian (non-funded) research centers and experts in evolutionary anthropology, in functional anatomy, biomechanics, numerical modelling and simulation. They designed a work program around 4 main scientific work packages: WP1 - Gather a large database of comparative anatomy (living humans and non-human primates (NHP) and fossil specimens) and motion (living humans and NHP) - We expect HoBiS to provide the widest comparative anatomical and bipedal gait database for a large variety of NHPs, as well as humans and fossil hominins. WP2 – Design a computer-assisted modeling of full anatomy and MSM based on partial anatomical information. We expect HoBiS to reconstruct numerous hominin species, and significantly improve our knowledge of Hominin locomotor anatomy. WP3 – Tools of simulation of bipedal gaits - We expect HoBiS to propose in-silico prediction of plausible locomotion with regards to specimen-specific MSM developed in WP2. WP4 - Application scenarios on fossil specimens - We expect our approach to significantly improve in accuracy and numbers of species (7 hominin species) our knowledge of the bipedal capacities in hominins all along our phylogenetic history.We expect the Specimen-Specific Functional Morphology to significantly increase fundamental knowledge on mechanisms of bipedal walking and the anatomical basis thereof in living primates and hominins. It will allow us to address the complexity of our evolutionary history, and could be reused in the field of Evolutionary Anthropology and comparative biology to address other functions. Important impacts are expected in the other fields including biomechanics, motor control, sciences of motion and robotics.