Hi Steven,

Ha, yep, not too many folks who work in human evolution focus on foot-related research. If you're still in NYC, then you could look up Dr. Will Harcourt-Smith, who is at the AMNH. He's one of the world's leading experts on foot evolution. To answer your question, it's difficult for us to ascertain whether our ancient relatives had higher rates of hallux abducto valgus and hammertoes. As you know, those conditions are produced by problems with both soft tissues and bony hard tissue. We really only have bony hard tissue preserved in the fossil record. Sometimes we can find bony anatomy that correlates with soft tissue anatomy, but that's difficult to do. I've done some myself and yes, I think it is interesting! The other issue is these problems involve multiple bones; we rarely have articulated feet in the fossil record. The Homo naledi feet are amongst the most complete fossil feet we have and even they're not enough to ascertain HAV and hammertoes (I've tried, and I don't think it can be done). We did, however, find some other foot problems: https://throckman.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Homo-naledis-pedal-pathologies-website.pdf

Thanks for your interest!

This is very interesting to me and further investigation truly is needed. Like you stated there just isn't complete skeleton with all the foot bones intact to analyze anatomic alignment between them. Also like you stated soft tissues on such small joints play a key role.

Steven, the problem of lack of understanding of foot pathology and how it affects functionality is a problem in historical skeletal studies as well. One of my own research interests relates to how club feet affected individuals in antiquity, an interest occasioned by a comment that the Egyptian Pharaoh Siptah would have been unable to fight because of such a deformity, something I quickly realised was nonsense since his level of deformity was lower than mine and I am an ex military type with several martial arts black belts/ instructor grades.

Although it is not exactly what you have asked for you might like to access the papers I have placed on Research Gate relating to disability among ancient/medieval warriors, you might find something useful.

J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1905;s2-3:105-136.

PHIL. HOFFMANN

THE FEET OF BAREFOOTED AND SHOE-WEARING PEOPLES

CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF

very interesting paper thanks Steven, although there is a point that I would disagree with that perhaps has more relevance to your research than to mine. In my case I possess the standard crowding of the toes that Hoffmann considered diagnostic of shoe wearing, however, the feeling of specialists is that in my case it is more likely to be the result of my congenital club feet than due to the former cause.

This raises the question of whether or not habitual walking on the toes, as suggested for some Amerindian groups, is enough to cause this crowding or whether or not it requires a pathology. Given that Hoffmann suggests this crowding to be diagnostic of shoe wearing then I wonder whether it has lead to specimens being mislabelled when collections are reviewed. Following on from this could this have any impact on the paucity of specimens that you note.

I forgot to add that the same deformity has not only caused toe crowding ala Hoffmann's paper but also the development of Hammer/Claw toes. The mechanism seems to be that that this is a better method of supporting the foot when habitual toe walking is involved, the shorter bent toes providing better grip and stability while walking in bare feet.

J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1905;s2-3:105-136.

PHIL. HOFFMANN

THE FEET OF BAREFOOTED AND SHOE-WEARING PEOPLES

CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF

This

Keep on Keeping on my opinion and have more evidence based studies "SHOES CAUSE MECHANICAL FOOTPROBLEMS/When no other medical condition exists "

I am allowed to have an opinion at my age 66 and seeing and treating many thousands of Patients with foot problems

Respectfully Steve