Although extensive research has been carried out in recent years on the origin and evolution of human bipedalism, a full understanding of this question is far from settled. Miocene hominoids are key to a better understanding of the locomotor types observed in living apes and humans. Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, an extinct stem great ape from the middle Miocene (c. 12.0 Ma) of the Vallès‐Penedès Basin (north‐eastern Iberian Peninsula), is the first undoubted hominoid with an orthograde (erect) body plan. Its locomotor repertoire included above‐branch quadrupedalism and other antipronograde behaviours. Elucidating the adaptive features present in the Pierolapithecus skeleton and its associated biomechanics helps us to better understand the origin of hominoid orthogrady. This work represents a new biomechanical perspective on Pierolapithecus locomotion, by studying its patella and comparing it with those drawn from a large sample of extant anthropoids. This is the first time that the biomechanical patellar performance in living non‐human anthropoids and a stem hominid has been studied using finite element analysis (FEA). Differences in stress distribution are found depending on body plan and the presence/absence of a distal apex, probably due to dissimilar biomechanical performances. Pierolapithecus’ biomechanical response mainly resembles that of great apes, suggesting a similar knee joint use in mechanical terms. These results underpin previous studies on Pierolapithecus, favouring the idea that a relevant degree of some antipronograde behaviour may have made up part of its locomotor repertoire. Moreover, our results corroborate the presence of modern great ape‐like knee biomechanical performances back in the Miocene.

中文翻译：

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通过有限元分析和中新世类人猿在我们了解反前突行为起源中的作用来研究膝关节功能：案例研究：Pateolapithecus catalaunicus pat骨

尽管近年来对人类两足动物的起源和进化进行了广泛的研究，但是对这个问题的全面理解还远未解决。中新世类人猿是更好地了解在活猿和人类中观察到的运动类型的关键。加泰罗尼亚皮尔劳尔猿catalaunicus，从中新世中期的灭绝干巨猿（ç将Vallés-Penedès的盆地（东北伊比利亚半岛）的12.0麻），是第一个毫无疑问的古猿与orthograde（直立）的身体构造。它的运动曲目包括分行四足表演和其他反代名词行为。阐明Pierolapithecus中存在的适应性特征骨骼及其相关的生物力学有助于我们更好地了解类人骨矫正的起源。这项工作通过研究its骨并将其与从大量现存类人动物样本中获得的骨进行比较，从而代表了有关菜青虫运动的新生物力学观点。这是首次使用有限元分析（FEA）研究了活的非人类类人猿和人类茎中的生物力学pa骨性能。发现应力分布的差异取决于人体计划和远近端尖尖的存在/不存在，这可能是由于生物力学性能不同所致。菜青虫生物力学反应主要类似于大猿猴，表明在机械方面类似的膝关节用法。这些结果巩固了以前对皮脂菌的研究，支持这样的观点，即某种程度的抗原虫行为可能构成其运动能力的一部分。此外，我们的研究结果证实了中新世存在现代的类人猿一样伟大的膝盖生物力学性能。