South African Homominins' Different Hand Use

This is a South Africa news story, published by ScienceDaily, that relates primarily to Australopithecus news.

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complete fossil hand skeletons

ScienceDaily

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Science

Dexterity and climbing ability: how ancient human relatives used their hands

Summary

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80% Informative

Scientists have found new evidence for how our fossil human relatives in South Africa may have used their hands.

Two ancient human relatives, Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi, had different finger bone morphologies that indicate they used different types of hand grips, both when using tools and when climbing.

A. sediba had a mix of ape-like and human-like features, while H.Naledi had a unique pattern of bone thickness.

H. naledi has unusually highly curved finger bones, particularly for a hominin that lived at the same time as the earliest members of our species, Homo sapiens.

This kind of loading pattern is typical of only certain grip types used today , like crimp grips, used often by rock climbers, where the surface is grasped primarily by the tips of the fingers.

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formal

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English

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not offensive

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not hateful