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."
damnit - “equivalent to ASTROLOGY!”
Humans have been talking for quite a while.
We are indeed talking apes.
Biology and paleontology and geology have nothing in the world to do with atheism or marxism or liberalism.
I’m not sure where you people get these ideas.
Evolution? The scientific process?
LOL! Hardly.
Everyone knows if you are going to create a human from a bone, it’s gotta be a rib bone.
Evolutionary scientists have called Darwinism “the greatest engine of atheism devised by man” and said that evolution made it possible “to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist”. That’s why you hear such panicked squawking from the left when someone brings up the fact that evolution is a failed theory.
Your protestations noted, and with the preponderance of evidence available, rejected out of hand.
Evolution predicted that human and chimpanzee genetic material would be similar, before DNA structure was known.
It is. The one fewer count of human chromosomes is explained by two chimpanzee chromosomes adhering together. They are, through a sequence identifiable as a failed telomere.
Over 98% of chimpanzee chromosomes are sequence orders that are identical to sequence orders of the human chromosomes. There are 16 sequences of DNA that show scars of infection by a retrovirus that are commmon to human and chimpanzee.
The circular nature of your statement is dizzying.
If they don’t like one, and don’t like the other, they must be the same.
They are all in the class of “I don’t like that”.
The irony is they don’t like Marx because of his assertion that class was important.
Preponderance of evidence for evolution? Seriously? Nothing in the fossil record supports the crackpot theory.
Some people claim to believe in evolution because they want to appear intellectual; they don’t want to be seen as toothless inbreds who go to Nascar races. Others believe it because they haven’t investigated it and discovered that it’s a failed theory, a secular cult. And some cling to it for reasons like your own, which you’ve stated elsewhere. So I understand your unwillingness to budge on the subject. Evolution MUST be true, or some uncomfortable truths must be faced.
Are you toilet trained?
QED.
Funny you should say that. Darwin and his modern day apostles are masters of circular reasoning.
I’m curious, what in your studies led you to NOT accept the fact of evolution? Be specific.
Well, actually I didn’t get that quote from Ann Coulter ( I don’t keep up with her these days) but if she published it, good for her.
One person, huh? The slightest bit of research will pull up evolutionary scientists who are increasingly doubting the failed theory or admitting that it can’t be true.
“Preponderance of evidence for evolution?”
Yes. Volumes upon volumes upon, you get the idea.
“Seriously?”
Yes
“Nothing in the fossil record supports the crackpot theory.”
Patently, demonstrably false.
“Some people claim to believe in evolution because they want to appear intellectual; they don’t want to be seen as toothless inbreds who go to Nascar races. Others believe it because they haven’t investigated it and discovered that it’s a failed theory, a secular cult.”
Some people once claimed to believe that the flat Earth was the center of universe with the sun revolving around it. Whatever motivates some imaginary person to ‘believe’ the way they do has no bearing on what is actually true.
“And some cling to it for reasons like your own, which you’ve stated elsewhere. So I understand your unwillingness to budge on the subject.”
Cling is a loaded word. Implies an emotional attachment of some sort, which I’ve never personally felt to the subject, or any that I can recall.
“Evolution MUST be true, or some uncomfortable truths must be faced.”
Comfort also has nothing to do with what is true.
That sounds like a chicken or egg first answer.
“Funny you should say that. Darwin and his modern day apostles are masters of circular reasoning.”
So you also have problems with Geometry it appears.
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