Abstract
Sagittal sacral orientation within the pelvic girdle of humans is a key component of posture and obstetrics. On the one hand, sacral orientation has direct influence on the lumbar curvature; while on the other hand, it has an impact on the dorsoventral dimension of the birth canal. In this study, we aim to explore the evolution of sacral orientation in the sagittal plane and its relationship with the lumbar curvature in hominins. To do this, we measured sacral orientation using the pelvic incidence (PI) angle of the pelves of 53 modern humans, 19 nonhuman hominoids, and 4 fossil hominins. Our results show that the PIs of modern and fossil H. sapiens are the highest while the PI of nonhuman hominoids is the lowest (a nearly parallel sacrum in relation to the hip bone). Australopithecines PI is higher than that of nonhuman hominoids, but lower than that of modern humans. The PI of Homo heidelbergensis and H. neanderthalensis (Neandertal lineage hominins) is the lowest among hominins. We also found a strong correlation between lumbar lordosis and PI in nonhuman hominoids and hominins, indicating that PI angle is a good predictor of the lumbar lordosis when only the pelvis is preserved. We conclude that sacral orientation changed during the course of human evolution. When Neandertal lineage hominins are ignored, the results indicate a fairly simple path of evolution from nonhuman hominoid-like to human-like sacral orientation with two stages of the development. Neandertal lineage hominins show a reversal of this trend.
Highlights
Pelvic morphology plays a paramount role in posture and locomotion, and the orientation of the sacrum in the pelvic girdle is a critical aspect of pelvic morphology
The tilting of the sacrum in the pelvis is concordant with the development of lordotic curvature, which aligns the spine in erect posture: more vertical i.e., less tilted sacra are related to less lordotic lumbar spines while tilted sacra are related to more lordotic lumbar spines. (Tardieu et al, 2006; Boulay et al, 2006; Legaye, 2007)
Our results regarding the orientation of the sacrum of australopithecines—smaller pelvic incidence (PI) compared to H. sapiens —are in agreement with Berge and Gualaras (2010), but contradict the results of Abitbol (1995a, 1995b)
Summary
Pelvic morphology plays a paramount role in posture and locomotion, and the orientation of the sacrum in the pelvic girdle is a critical aspect of pelvic morphology. The sacrum moved from a position that is almost parallel to the iliac blades when viewed from the side to the distinctive angled sacrum of humans. Some authors have proposed explanations for the change in sacral tilt in bipedal hominins (Abitbol, 1987; Lovejoy, 2005; Hogervorst et al, 2009): the obstetric hypothesis, which suggests that the sacrum is tilted in order to accommodate the pelvic outlet to the enlarged fetal head of humans; and the locomotive hypothesis, which correlates sacral tilt to the biomechanical demands of erect posture and bipedalism, as it serves to bring the weight of the trunk closer to the acetabulum (Abitbol, 1987)
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