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New research suggests right-handedness prevailed 500,000 years ago
University of Kansas -- KU News ^ | April 18, 2011 | Brendan M. Lynch

Posted on 04/21/2011 7:58:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

David Frayer, professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas, has used markings on fossilized front teeth to show that right-handedness goes back more than 500,000 years... His research shows that distinctive markings on fossilized teeth correlate to the right or left-handedness of individual prehistoric humans... The oldest teeth come from a more than 500,000-year-old chamber known as Sima de los Huesos near Burgos, Spain, containing the remains of humans believed to be ancestors of European Neandertals. Other teeth studied by Frayer come from later Neandertal populations in Europe...

Overall, Frayer and his co-authors found right-handedness in 93.1 percent of individuals sampled from the Sima de los Huesos and European Neandertal sites.

"It is difficult to interpret these fossil data in any way other than that laterality was established early in European fossil record and continued through the Neandertals," said Frayer. "This establishes that handedness is found in more than just recent Homo sapiens."

Frayer said that his findings on right-handedness have implications for understanding the language capacity of ancient populations, because language is primarily located on the left side of the brain, which controls the right side of the body, there is a right handedness-language connection.

"The general correlation between handedness and brain laterality shows that human brains were lateralized in a 'modern' way by at least half a million years ago and the pattern has not changed since then," he said. "There is no reason to suspect this pattern does not extend deeper into the past and that language has ancient, not recent, roots."

(Excerpt) Read more at news.ku.edu ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; neandertal; neandertals; neanderthal; neanderthals
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The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve

in local libraries
Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]

1 posted on 04/21/2011 7:58:29 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: decimon
University of Kansas

New research suggests right-handedness prevailed 500,000 years ago

2 posted on 04/21/2011 7:59:21 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

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3 posted on 04/21/2011 7:59:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: SunkenCiv

Right-handed animals, proto-humans or what?

The earlier denizens are shrouded in mystery.


4 posted on 04/21/2011 8:04:36 PM PDT by One Name
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To: SunkenCiv

I’m left handed, I wouldn’t know.


5 posted on 04/21/2011 8:09:55 PM PDT by mowowie
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To: SunkenCiv

Right-handedness is clearly a primitive trait.


6 posted on 04/21/2011 8:10:30 PM PDT by decimon
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To: mowowie

Interesting fact: My parents had 9 children, and only 3 are right handed. My mother was right-handed. My father claimed that he had been born left-handed but had been forced to use his right. He would have been 100 years old this year, and, in his day, discouraging a child from using his left hand was not uncommon.


7 posted on 04/21/2011 8:15:20 PM PDT by Bigg Red (Palin in 2012)
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To: SunkenCiv


8 posted on 04/21/2011 8:16:01 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Visualize ;-{))
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To: SunkenCiv

The youngest left-handed Neanderthal kids were always getting older right-handed hand-me-down clubs.


9 posted on 04/21/2011 8:41:12 PM PDT by bunkerhill7
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To: SunkenCiv

Uh-hyuck; we’ve always been right handed, ever since before we had hands, because we’re based on right handed molecules! *<];-’)


10 posted on 04/21/2011 8:42:07 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Made in America, by proud American citizens, in 1946.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Goodness gracious. Some things never change.


11 posted on 04/21/2011 8:53:17 PM PDT by TheOldLady
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To: mowowie

One thing I’ve noticed is how many actors and famous people are left handed.


12 posted on 04/21/2011 9:44:23 PM PDT by brytlea (A tick stole my tagline....)
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To: JoeProBono

That’s funny.... but now, it makes me wonder, is there symbolism in God using his right hand and Adam using is left, or sinister hand?? Hmmmm....


13 posted on 04/21/2011 9:46:04 PM PDT by brytlea (A tick stole my tagline....)
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To: brytlea

“One thing I’ve noticed is how many actors and famous people are left handed.”

And blue-eyed.

I’m both....and Awesome
I’m also on my 5th beer. :)


14 posted on 04/21/2011 9:52:04 PM PDT by mowowie
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To: brytlea
“because language is primarily located on the left side of the brain, which controls the right side of the body, there is a right handedness-language connection”

That explains why i had problems with my required 4 semesters of a foreign language to graduate from UMass.
Of course that might of been because i had a ton of REAL classes to worry about at the time.

They say lefties have greater spatial awareness over right-handed people.
Maybe i should have been an architect.....or a MLB pitcher.

15 posted on 04/21/2011 10:03:11 PM PDT by mowowie
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To: mowowie

Hey, we’re all better when you’re on your fifth beer! :)


16 posted on 04/21/2011 10:19:06 PM PDT by brytlea (A tick stole my tagline....)
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To: mowowie

I’m sorry, I guess it’s late, I’m not making the connection. Maybe after a good night’s sleep I’ll read that again and it will make sense. Or maybe I should have a few beers! :) Night night!


17 posted on 04/21/2011 10:20:42 PM PDT by brytlea (A tick stole my tagline....)
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To: brytlea

It was a quote from the article i think.

Anyways i’m tired too.
Time for bed.
Sweet dreams brytlea.


18 posted on 04/21/2011 10:26:49 PM PDT by mowowie
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To: SunkenCiv
This made me wonder if animals favored one side or the other because if they did then it would go much deeper than language centers of the brain. What I found was more surprising than I thought it would be.

Female Cats Are Right-Pawed, Males Are Lefties

The findings also add to a growing body of evidence that male animals tend to be left-handed, or in this case left-pawed, more often than females. While 90 percent of all humans are right-handed, of the remaining southpaws, more tend to be men.


19 posted on 04/21/2011 10:37:14 PM PDT by TigersEye (Who crashed the markets on 9/15/08 and why?)
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To: Bigg Red
He would have been 100 years old this year, and, in his day, discouraging a child from using his left hand was not uncommon.

They were still doing it well into the '30s, maybe '40s. It was common to be rapped on the knuckles with a ruler by teachers for being left-handed, even in urban schools. My mother wrote right-handed because of it. She still did other things, like eating, left-handed.

20 posted on 04/21/2011 11:34:10 PM PDT by newzjunkey
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