University of Kansas
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 ...
The Neandertal EnigmaFrayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]
by James Shreeve
in local libraries
University of Kansas
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Right-handed animals, proto-humans or what?
The earlier denizens are shrouded in mystery.
I’m left handed, I wouldn’t know.
Right-handedness is clearly a primitive trait.
Interesting fact: My parents had 9 children, and only 3 are right handed. My mother was right-handed. My father claimed that he had been born left-handed but had been forced to use his right. He would have been 100 years old this year, and, in his day, discouraging a child from using his left hand was not uncommon.
The youngest left-handed Neanderthal kids were always getting older right-handed hand-me-down clubs.
Uh-hyuck; we’ve always been right handed, ever since before we had hands, because we’re based on right handed molecules! *<];-’)
Goodness gracious. Some things never change.
One thing I’ve noticed is how many actors and famous people are left handed.
That’s funny.... but now, it makes me wonder, is there symbolism in God using his right hand and Adam using is left, or sinister hand?? Hmmmm....
“One thing I’ve noticed is how many actors and famous people are left handed.”
And blue-eyed.
I’m both....and Awesome
I’m also on my 5th beer. :)
That explains why i had problems with my required 4 semesters of a foreign language to graduate from UMass.
Of course that might of been because i had a ton of REAL classes to worry about at the time.
They say lefties have greater spatial awareness over right-handed people.
Maybe i should have been an architect.....or a MLB pitcher.
Hey, we’re all better when you’re on your fifth beer! :)
I’m sorry, I guess it’s late, I’m not making the connection. Maybe after a good night’s sleep I’ll read that again and it will make sense. Or maybe I should have a few beers! :) Night night!
It was a quote from the article i think.
Anyways i’m tired too.
Time for bed.
Sweet dreams brytlea.
Female Cats Are Right-Pawed, Males Are LeftiesThe findings also add to a growing body of evidence that male animals tend to be left-handed, or in this case left-pawed, more often than females. While 90 percent of all humans are right-handed, of the remaining southpaws, more tend to be men.
They were still doing it well into the '30s, maybe '40s. It was common to be rapped on the knuckles with a ruler by teachers for being left-handed, even in urban schools. My mother wrote right-handed because of it. She still did other things, like eating, left-handed.
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