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February 7, 2011

Homo sapiens: marathon runners

I recently mentioned some research that suggested that Neanderthals were good at sprinting. Well, now it seems that our kin was (is) instead much better than Neanderthals at long distance running. However our European aboriginal cousins were good at walking and at strength-demanding exercises.

All this based on the proportions of the heel bone, the calcaneus.


Neanderthal heel was taller than ours and would hence have been quite worse for the spring action that is critical in running performance.

Source: PhysOrg, via AiE.

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