hand shandy
And here I was thinking that we came down from the trees assumed an upright posture and developed a grip for ...
SUPERHANDS! Fossils of early human ancestors reveal a GRIPPING development
Ancestors of humans who lived around three to two million years ago appear to have had the ability to use their hands in a very similar way to how we grip tools today, according to a new study from anthropologists. Power "squeeze" gripping and forceful precision employed by humans were understood to relate to a reduction in …
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Saturday 24th January 2015 19:03 GMT Grikath
Re: hand shandy
Australopithecus already used tools, and posessed rudimentary stone knapping techniques.
Mind.. you can do quite a lot without a "powergrip" opposable thumb, so rather than "tool use" this little bit of info shifts precision tool use ( and the whole brain development thing) back quite a bit.
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Friday 30th January 2015 14:27 GMT Andrew Meredith
Re: hand shandy
>>so perhaps tool use goes back a lot further than previously thought<<
I saw a prog on the goggle the other night saying that expertly worked flint had been found in layers significantly predating Homo S. They also stated that Homo Neanderthalensis was expert in tool making including flint knapping.
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Saturday 24th January 2015 20:43 GMT Isn't it obvious?
This was on Q&Q today...
And the study was only published Thursday? That's pretty impressive, to have researched it, prepped the host and taped an interview to air at noon on Saturday.
The whole bit about the trabecular bone patterns was quite interesting, really. They change from repeated stress, so you can infer what kind of work/tool use someone did from the preserved remains. It means that it's possible to detect the effects of tool use, even if the tools themselves did not survive.
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Sunday 25th January 2015 11:40 GMT Doctor Syntax
The comment on the New Scientist report at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26844-human-ancestors-got-a-grip-on-tools-3-million-years-ago.html#.VMIwqv6sXTo give this a different slant. The squeeze grip is related to climbing (my first reaction to reading the report here was much the same) and the precision grip has a possible alternative origin in peeling fruit.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
