Why longer thumbs in primates were pivotal to human evolution
Research means longer thumbs larger brains, and this is “very important” to human evolution.
Scientists examined 94 fossils and living animals to understand how our ancestors developed their immersive abilities.
The study published in the journal Communication biologyHe looked at the primate types of Neanderthals from the Lemur, and found that the brain developed with manual dexterity to help drag small objects.
“Big minds and resourceful hands are considered very important in human evolution, together with the possible technology, culture and colonization of various environments,” the research writers said.
People and our extinct relatives have both extraordinary long thumbs and extraordinary large brains.
However, the connection remains strong in all primates: when scientists remove human data from their analysis, the connection between the thumb length and the brain size remained.
Dr Joanna Baker, the chief writer of Reading University, said, uz We always know that our big brains and agile fingers separate us, but now we can see that they are not developing separately.
“As our ancestors became better in collecting and manipulating objects, their brains had to grow to deal with these new skills. These skills were finely adjusted during the millions of years of brain evolution.”
41 In the tests on the primate type, scientists found that those with longer thumbs can move the small objects more easily between the thumb and the finger, and also predicted how well the size of their brains perform these tasks.
Scientists expect longer thumbs to be linked to the cerebellum – part of the brain responsible for movement and coordination.
Instead, however, they were attached to a longer thumb, a complex, layered region, which took half of the volume of the human brain. This field processes sensory information and processes cognitive and cognition.
These findings show that as primates develop better manual skills to process objects, their brains should grow to effectively process and use these new abilities.
However, work writers explain that the lengths of the thumb cannot be used alone to identify the use of vehicles, and are explained by the relationship with the brain and thumb size constant among all primates, regardless of whether they are using a vehicle.
“This is compatible with the suggestions that the characteristics of Homini’s hand, including long thumbs, including long thumbs dated the origin of systematic vehicle production ,, Yaz he wrote.
“Our results do not support the idea that thumb lengths are sufficient morphological indicators in both hominas or all primates. Therefore, we cannot make any inferences about the use of vehicles from our results.”
The authors say there is a need for more work to determine how to fully support neocortex manipulative skills.
