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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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To: SunkenCiv

ok, what came first? Righthandedness or a right to left curve in a certain part of the male anatomy???


21 posted on 04/22/2011 12:59:42 AM PDT by wildbill (You're just jealous because the Voices talk only to me.)
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To: mowowie

“They say lefties have greater spatial awareness over right-handed people.”

I worked with a great many very brilliant engineers, and it was amazing how many of them were left-handed. I was the stupid righty. I was also the go-to for proof-reading and editing papers. Interesting.


22 posted on 04/22/2011 1:18:29 AM PDT by Explorer89 (And now, let the wild rumpus start!!)
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To: newzjunkey

I wonder what effect on brain patterns this change in hand usage had on our parents.


23 posted on 04/22/2011 6:13:19 AM PDT by Bigg Red (Palin in 2012)
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To: mowowie

Reread after a good night’s sleep and a few cups of coffee and it makes sense! :) My husband’s family has some lefties, altho none of my kids (nor my hubby) are lefties. My sister in law is very ambidexterous, which is really handy. I am barely dexterous, on the other hand. ;)


24 posted on 04/22/2011 8:10:21 AM PDT by brytlea (A tick stole my tagline....)
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To: Bigg Red

I guess changing handedness wasn’t universal. My FIL was a lefty and he was born in 1923. I wonder if some places were not doing that, or some kids just ignored them (he was pretty feisty) or if it was regional?


25 posted on 04/22/2011 8:14:56 AM PDT by brytlea (A tick stole my tagline....)
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To: wildbill

Hey, I won’t touch that debate with a, uh, never mind.


26 posted on 04/22/2011 10:41:17 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: TigersEye

This is pretty interesting.


27 posted on 04/22/2011 10:45:37 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: JoeProBono; bunkerhill7; decimon; ApplegateRanch

LOL!


28 posted on 04/22/2011 10:47:03 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: mowowie; SunkenCiv
I haven't seen any research, but supposedly there is a higher incidence of stammering among lefties. The story is forcing lefties to write right-handed can cause stammering, as in King George VI of The King's Speech fame.
29 posted on 04/22/2011 2:09:02 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: SunkenCiv

Thanks. I thought you would like the tie in.


30 posted on 04/22/2011 4:19:52 PM PDT by TigersEye (Who crashed the markets on 9/15/08 and why?)
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To: TigersEye

Left-handed kitties, they’re everywhere!


31 posted on 04/22/2011 4:47:29 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: colorado tanker

Luckily they don’t have much to say anyway.

[ow! ow! ouch! yeeouch!]


32 posted on 04/22/2011 4:48:57 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: SunkenCiv

Left handed tom cats. They come from the land of ice and snow!


33 posted on 04/22/2011 4:55:38 PM PDT by TigersEye (Who crashed the markets on 9/15/08 and why?)
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To: brytlea

Since he was born in 1923, post-WWI, your FIL would have been learning to write around 1929, when, I would think, educators had become more enlightened about handedness. My father would have started school around 1917 with teachers of a different world view.


34 posted on 04/23/2011 6:21:04 AM PDT by Bigg Red (Palin in 2012)
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To: SunkenCiv

Ten foot pole? In your dreams.


35 posted on 04/23/2011 7:55:06 AM PDT by wildbill (You're just jealous because the Voices talk only to me.)
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To: Bigg Red

Ah, maybe that’s why. I never asked him about it.


36 posted on 04/23/2011 6:49:42 PM PDT by brytlea (A tick stole my tagline....)
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To: wildbill

I have to be careful what I dream, else I could give myself a black eye. Water’s cold. And deep.


37 posted on 04/24/2011 6:54:45 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: bunkerhill7

Good one—just in case no one else noticed!


38 posted on 06/09/2011 2:59:28 AM PDT by Does so (Government is the only enterprise in the world which expands in size when its failures increase.)
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