The styloid process allows the hand to lock into the wrist bones, giving humans the ability to apply greater amounts of pressure to the hand. This allows humans to make and use tools. Courtesy of University of Missouri
Posted on 12/18/2013 10:11:55 AM PST by null and void
The styloid process allows the hand to lock into the wrist bones, giving humans the ability to apply greater amounts of pressure to the hand. This allows humans to make and use tools. Courtesy of University of Missouri
COLUMBIA, MO – Humans have a distinctive hand anatomy that allows them to make and use tools. Apes and other nonhuman primates do not have these distinctive anatomical features in their hands, and the point in time at which these features first appeared in human evolution is unknown. Now, a University of Missouri researcher and her international team of colleagues have found a new hand bone from a human ancestor who roamed the earth in East Africa approximately 1.42 million years ago. They suspect the bone belonged to the early human species, Homo erectus. The discovery of this bone is the earliest evidence of a modern human-like hand, indicating that this anatomical feature existed more than half a million years earlier than previously known.
"This bone is the third metacarpal in the hand, which connects to the middle finger. It was discovered at the 'Kaitio' site in West Turkana, Kenya," said Carol Ward, professor of pathology and anatomical sciences at MU. The discovery was made by a West Turkana Paleo Project team, led by Ward's colleague and co-author Fredrick Manthi of the National Museums of Kenya. "What makes this bone so distinct is that the presence of a styloid process, or projection of bone, at the end that connects to the wrist. Until now, this styloid process has been found only in us, Neandertals and other archaic humans."
The styloid process helps the hand bone lock into the wrist bones, allowing for greater amounts of pressure to be applied to the wrist and hand from a grasping thumb and fingers. Ward and her colleagues note that a lack of the styloid process created challenges for apes and earlier humans when they attempted to make and use tools. This lack of a styloid process may have increased the chances of having arthritis earlier, Ward said.
The bone was found near sites where the earliest Acheulian tools have appeared. Acheulian tools are ancient, shaped stone tools that include stone hand axes more than 1.6 million years old. Being able to make such precise tools indicates that these early humans were almost certainly using their hands for many other complex tasks as well, Ward said.
"The styloid process reflects an increased dexterity that allowed early human species to use powerful yet precise grips when manipulating objects. This was something that their predecessors couldn't do as well due to the lack of this styloid process and its associated anatomy," Ward said. "With this discovery, we are closing the gap on the evolutionary history of the human hand. This may not be the first appearance of the modern human hand, but we believe that it is close to the origin, given that we do not see this anatomy in any human fossils older than 1.8 million years. Our specialized, dexterous hands have been with us for most of the evolutionary history of our genus, Homo. They are – and have been for almost 1.5 million years – fundamental to our survival."
Actually, there is a great deal of evidence, especially since DNA analysis.
As far as scientific pursuits are concerned, ‘common sense’ isn’t a factor.
“People believe myths in the face of contrary evidence way beyond a reasonable doubt because they think it in their best interests to do so.”
You sure that statement supports the argument you appear to be making?
Um. We ARE talking apes.
That’s quite a mutation. We’re asked to believe the human hand was a primitive, clumsy thing, and suddenly became dextrous almost overnight in the span of evolutionary time.
Perhaps some paleontologist here can enlighten me.
Quite a mutation! Any more than this? 
Yes, fossils are rare. As to what this has to do with my post, I’m unclear.
> Media hype and public awareness notwithstanding, it still
> will happen when and if new evidence is discovered.
Just like Global Warming.
It’s not evidence for anything until it’s suffers all the scientific tests, including falsifiability.
Until then, it’s just data.
So is intelligent design based on Jewish myth, Christian myth, Islamic myth, or Hindu myth?
Trillion of examples of evidence, but start with your own body. It’s harder to find something that was NOT intelligently designed with a purpose. Your intricate components external and internal, you ear, eye, brain, heart, blood network, incredible digestive system, the way you’re made like a city, with electricity, plumbing, and a dump. “Purpose” is stamped all over you.
Minor point, all data and observation is evidence for something.
Are you a myth? If your body is a myth - how all the interconnecting and intricate parts work separately and as a whole to make YOUR BODY work is a myth - then ID is a myth.
The city planner who made me put my entertainment center right next to the sewage treatment plant.
Hard to argue against that logic.
Didn't know that. I do know, though, that believing in the evolution myth requires an ark(snicker)full of faith from the wild-eyed Darwin apostles.
Or a basic understanding of the scientific process.
Argument from incredulity.
There are reams and reams of evidence for each and every one of our morphological components. Which one would you like to concentrate on? I’ll cite my work. Can you do the same beyond, “It’s amazing?”
And yet, they are occasionally found:
Every fossil and every potential fossil is transitional.
ID is an idea much, much older than evolution and the scientific method. It’s nothing new. What IS relatively new is the admission by its leading proponent that ID is the scientific equivalent of astronomy.
Your inability or unwillingness to understand how our “parts” came to be as they are is not evidence for their “intelligent design.”
I mean, what cruel designer placed us on a planet wholly dependent on a giant fireball without providing us a type of skin cell immune to its cancer causing effects?
Another run at trying to creat a human out of one bone, where is the rest of this great find. Only the atheists and the marxitsts and the liberal left think this is real science. Like others on here stated looks like the remains of a hot wing. Once again the junk science gets it day in the sun. there will be the mouth breathers that will be foaming at the mouth over this crap.
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