Bipedal versus Quadrupedal Hind Limb and Foot Kinematics in a Captive Sample of Papio anubis: Setup and Preliminary Results

Setups that integrate both kinematics and morpho-functional investigations of a single sample constitute recent developments in the study of nonhuman primate bipedalisms. We introduce the integrated setup built at the Primatology Station of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), which allows analysis of both bipedal and quadrupedal locomotion in a population of 55–60 captive olive baboons. As a first comparison, we present the hind limb kinematics of both locomotor modalities in 10 individuals, focusing on the stance phase. The main results are: 1) differences in bipedal and quadrupedal kinematics at the hip, knee, and foot levels; 2) a variety of foot contacts to the ground, mainly of semiplantigrade type, but also of plantigrade type; 3) equal variations between bipedal and quadrupedal foot angles; 4) the kinematics of the foot joints act in coordinated and stereotyped manners, but are triggered differently according to whether the support is bipedal or quadrupedal. Although very occasionally realized, the bipedal walk of olive baboon appears to be a habitual and nonerratic locomotor modality.