title: Handedness in captive bonobos (Pan paniscus).
abstract: Species level right-handedness is often considered to be unique to humans. Handedness is held to be interrelated to our language ability and has been used as a means of tracing the evolution of language. Here we examine handedness in 3 captive groups of bonobos (Pan paniscus) comprising 22 individuals. We found no evidence for species level handedness. Conclusions that can be drawn from these findings are: (1) species level handedness evolved after the divergence of the Pan and Homo lineages; (2) inconsistent preferences may represent precursors to human handedness, and (3) Pan may have language abilities but these cannot be measured using handedness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK. r.m.harrison@sheffield.ac.uk
authors.forename: Rebecca M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.forename: Pia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nystrom
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D019974:Pan paniscus / Q000502:physiology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics