Ancient teeth hint that right-handedness is nothing new

New Scientist ^ | May 23, 2009 | Ewen Callaway

[decimon]

Ancient bones suggest "lefties" have been coping with a right-handed world for more than half a million years. A study of Homo heidelbergensis, an ancestor of Neanderthals, seems to show that the ancient humans were predominately right-handed.

"Finding that a hominin species as old as Homo heidelbergensis is already right-handed helps to trace back the chain of modernity concerning hand laterality," says Marina Mosquera, a paleoanthropologist at Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain, who was involved in the study.

Humans are the only animal believed to show a strong preference for performing tasks with one hand or the other. Determining when right-handedness first evolved could shed light on traits linked to lateralised brains, such as language and technology, Mosquera says. Efforts to solve this mystery have looked to ancient human skulls and marks left on tools.

[decimon]

Adroit incision ping.

[squarebarb]

Not true. As a horse owner I can tell you that horses prefer the right lead at a gallop , and rodeo riders tell me that most bucking bulls spin to the left, i.e. use their right front foot to push left. I bet dog trainers can tell you the same thing.

Most animals are right-sided.

[Sacajaweau]

"Grant Money" wins again.

[chuck_the_tv_out]

“Humans are [..] animal”

lie.

[Clintons Are White Trash]

Did you know that left handed people have an average 2 points higher IQ? (Yes, I’m left handed!)

[decimon]

"Grant Money" wins again.

Such cynicism. Tsk tsk!

[Bernard]

Only 2 points? I would have expected a much larger difference. Probably research results released by a right-handed person.

[decimon]

Did you know that left handed people have an average 2 points higher IQ? (Yes, I’m left handed!)

I'm also left-handed. I posted this for the benefit of the inferior masses. ;-)

[AnAmericanMother]

Bingo.

Both my dogs are right-sided. My mare is right-sided too.

But I think you have the effect on the canter backwards. Most horses are right sided and the muscles on that side are more developed and tend to contract, so the untrained horse tends to fall onto the left lead (and run out to the left, and be unable to change to the right lead in an emergency). Once the horse is properly schooled to be straight, and to strike off from the trailing hind leg instead of falling onto the leading leg, he will take the right lead.

Polo ponies, which by and large don't get a lot of advanced collection work, have to be cantered extensively to the right to make them keep that lead (most polo players are right handed and want the pony to keep the right lead so they can't be ridden off). I speak from experience here because I exercised a local polo player's ponies and asked him if he wanted collection drills. He said, "Nah, just canter 'em around to the right 10-12 times."

But I also have a learned authority -- Noel Jackson in his Effective Horsemanship has a whole chapter on 'sidedness' in horses and its consequences.

I even went and checked to make sure I didn't have it backwards. It's Chapter X - "The Horse Straight".

[Young Werther]

Left Handed People are sinister!

[squarebarb]

Thanks! BTW, I got my concealed carry liscence! Now to buy a pistol. Thanks for your advice.

[decimon]

Left Handed People are sinister!

And gauche. And the rest of you deserve that.

[Fire_on_High]

I’ve noticed the same thing with our cats. Each cat has a distinct and consistent paw preference. They’ll consistently get up and turn to put their preferred paw to a dangled toy and keep the same paw down for balance rather than swat with the off paw alone.

[Vinnie]

Clinton and the present I in C are left-handed. Me too.

[AnAmericanMother]

Congrats on the CCP.

Have you decided what sort of handgun you want? (I'm as opinionated on that as I am on everything else!)

[Young Werther]

I got straight As in Latin. Check my tagline!

Dexter = On the Right side, skillful

Sinistr = on the left side, unlucky, inauspicious .

An ambidextrus person can perform actions with either hand.

Since 85% of the population are dextrous righthandedness is the norm. In the middle ages the word for left handedness morphed into Sinister meaning evil, bad witchlike etc.

Sorry for the tease!

[decimon]

I got straight As in Latin.

But apparently not in French. C'mon, the 'adroit' should have done it. ;-)

[deport]

Did you know that left handed people have an average 2 points higher IQ?

---

Is that the reason for the last few left handed Presidents?

[squarebarb]

my brother stronly recommended a Springfield XD .40 cal. and when I went to the outfitters afterwards they didn’t have it, it is on order.I was dithering about getting something else but a customer beside me said ‘my mother has that gun and she really likes it’.

So I went ahead and put it on order.

What is your recommendation?