Morgan - a University of Utah medical student - conducted their study to identify any performance advantages a human fist may provide during fighting.
So Carrier and study co-author Michael H.
"If a fist posture does provide a performance advantage for punching, the proportions of our hands also may have evolved in response to selection for fighting ability, in addition to selection for dexterity," Carrier says. Fights also were for food, water, land and shelter to support a family, and "over pride, reputation and for revenge," he adds.
#CHIMPANZEE HAND BONE VS HUMAN HAND BONE MANUAL#
If we can understand what our anatomy has evolved to do, we'll have a clearer picture of who we were in the beginning, and whether aggression is part of who we are."Ĭarrier agrees that human hands evolved for improved manual dexterity, but adds that "the proportions of our hands also allow us to make a fist," protecting delicate hand bones, muscles and ligaments during hand-to-hand combat.Īs our ancestors evolved, "an individual who could strike with a clenched fist could hit harder without injuring themselves, so they were better able to fight for mates and thus more likely to reproduce," he says. "Our anatomy holds clues to that question. Humans have debated for centuries "about whether we are, by nature, aggressive animals," he adds. "We're the poster children for violence." "There are people who do not like this idea, but it is clear that compared with other mammals, great apes are a relatively aggressive group, with lots of fighting and violence, and that includes us," Carrier says. 19 by the Journal of Experimental Biology. "The role aggression has played in our evolution has not been adequately appreciated," says University of Utah biology Professor David Carrier, senior author of the study, scheduled for publication Dec. Compared with apes, humans have shorter palms and fingers and longer, stronger, flexible thumbs - features that have been long thought to have evolved so our ancestors had the manual dexterity to make and use tools.
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