Posted on 01/18/2010 12:06:35 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Scientists may have solved the mystery of how human hands became nimble enough to make and manipulate stone tools. The team reports in the journal Evolution that changes in our hands and fingers were a side-effect of changes in the shape of our feet. This, they say, shows that the capacity to stand and walk on two feet is intrinsically linked to the emergence of stone tool technology. The scientists used a mathematical model to simulate the changes. Other researchers, though, have questioned this approach. Campbell Rolian, a scientist from the University of Calgary in Canada who led the study, said: "This goes back to Darwin's The Descent of Man. [Charles Darwin] was among the first to consider the relationship between stone tool technology and bipedalism. His idea was that they were separate events and they happened sequentially - that bipedalism freed the hand to evolve for other purposes. What we showed was that the changes in the hand and foot are similar developments... and changes in one would have side-effects manifesting in the other." ...Robin Crompton, professor of anatomy at the UK's Liverpool University, said the study was very interesting but also raised some questions. "I am not personally convinced that the foot and hand of chimpanzees are a good model [of human ancestors' hands and feet] - the foot of the lowland gorilla may be more interesting in this respect," he told BBC News. He pointed out that there was a lot more to the functional shape and biomechanics of the human foot than just its proportions.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
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Gods |
Apropos of nothing, I loved Charles Bronson's "Death Wish" films. |
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That was my fear, as well!
:’)
Yeah whatever.
Evolutionism is much more an inlook into those who prognosticate it than any insight into the past.
All I know is my very intelligent daughter used all fours to hold her bottle when an infant. There is still some old code lurking in the genes.
:’)
(’:
Yeah whatever.
Imagine what the phrenologist would say, considering where Martha “Massachusettes” Coakley keeps her head...
An older nurse I know insists that she was trained to judge the length needed for catheters by looking at the man’s hand.
Oh no, what happened to my nose?
That’s not as creepy as that thumb-switching hand. :’)
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