Fig. 5: Multivariate analysis of foot morphology in early hominins.
From: New finds shed light on diet and locomotion in Australopithecus deyiremeda
a, The first three dimensions of the linear discriminant (LD1–3) analysis represent 98.9% of the sample variance. b, BRT-VP-2/73 has a relatively shallow MT1 head similar to ARA-VP-6/500 and African apes, and unlike A.L. 333-115 and Homo sapiens. c, BRT-VP-2/73 has a relatively wide MT1 head, overlapping with H. sapiens, whereas A.L. 333-115 and ARA-VP-6/500 have narrower, more African ape-like MT1 heads. d, The relative length of the BRT-VP-2/73 PP4 is reduced compared with ARA-VP-6/500 and A.L. 333-115, falling at the low end of the Gorilla distributions. e, The relative depth of the PP4 trochlea is reduced in BRT-VP-2/73 compared with ARA-VP-6/500 and A.L. 333-115. All linear distances are scaled by the geometric mean. The box-and-whisker plots display the median, interquartile range and range, along with individual values. The star and dashed vertical line indicate the values for BRT-VP-2/73, whereas the black circles are the other fossil hominins in panels b–e.
