Abstract
Recently, we investigated the relationship between locomotion, spinal pathology, and the 2D shape of the final thoracic and first lumbar vertebrae in humans, chimpanzees, and orang-utans. The spinal pathology we focused on was Schmorl’s nodes, which are depressions on the vertebral body resulting from vertical herniation of the intervertebral disc. We found that pathological human vertebrae share more similarities in shape to chimpanzee vertebrae than healthy humans do. This suggests that the occurrence of inter-vertebral disc herniation may be influenced by a particular vertebral shape that is more susceptible to the stress placed on the spine during bipedalism.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 254 |
Number of pages | 1 |
Journal | American Journal of Physical Anthropology |
Volume | 156 |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2015 |
Event | 84th Annual Meeting of the American-Association-of-Physical-Anthropologists - St Louis, Macao Duration: 25 Mar 2015 → 28 Mar 2015 |