Evidence in hand: recent discoveries and the early evolution of human manual manipulation.
For several decades, it was largely assumed that stone tool use and production were abilities limited to the genus Homo. However, growing palaeontological and archaeological evidence, comparative extant primate studies, as well as results from methodological advancements in biomechanics and morphological analyses, have been gradually accumulating and now provide strong support for more advanced manual manipulative abilities and tool-related behaviours in pre-Homo hominins than has been traditionally recognized. Here, I review the fossil evidence related to early hominin dexterity, including the recent discoveries of relatively complete early hominin hand skeletons, and new methodologies that are providing a more holistic interpretation of hand function, and insight into how our early ancestors may have balanced the functional requirements of both arboreal locomotion and tool-related behaviours.
Animal Postcranial Evolution (APE) Lab, Skeletal Biology Research Centre, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Marlowe Building, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NR, UK Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig 04103, Germany t.l.kivell@kent.ac.uk.
Tracy L
TL
Kivell
D000818:Animals; D001106:Archaeology; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005580:Fossils; D006225:Hand / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D015186:Hominidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D010163:Paleontology; D011323:Primates; D053001:Tool Use Behavior
Australopithecus; Homo; arboreal locomotion; dexterity; tool use