Right‐handed fossil humans

Fossil hominids often processed material held between their upper and lower teeth. Pulling with one hand and cutting with the other, they occasionally left impact cut marks on the lip (labial) surface of their incisors and canines. From these actions, it possible to determine the dominant hand used....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolutionary anthropology 2017-11, Vol.26 (6), p.313-324
Main Authors: Lozano, Marina, Estalrrich, Almudena, Bondioli, Luca, Fiore, Ivana, Bermúdez de Castro, José‐Maria, Arsuaga, Juan Luis, Carbonell, Eudald, Rosas, Antonio, Frayer, David W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
archaic Homo
Fossils
Handedness
Hominids
labial tooth striations
laterality
Neandertals
Pleistocene
Primates
Teeth
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Summary:Fossil hominids often processed material held between their upper and lower teeth. Pulling with one hand and cutting with the other, they occasionally left impact cut marks on the lip (labial) surface of their incisors and canines. From these actions, it possible to determine the dominant hand used. The frequency of these oblique striations in an array of fossil hominins documents the typically modern pattern of 9 right‐ to 1 left‐hander. This ratio among living Homo sapiens differs from that among chimpanzees and bonobos and more distant primate relatives. Together, all studies of living people affirm that dominant right‐handedness is a uniquely modern human trait. The same pattern extends deep into our past. Thus far, the majority of inferred right‐handed fossils come from Europe, but a single maxilla from a Homo habilis, OH‐65, shows a predominance of right oblique scratches, thus extending right‐handedness into the early Pleistocene of Africa. Other studies show right‐handedness in more recent African, Chinese, and Levantine fossils, but the sample compiled for non‐European fossil specimens remains small. Fossil specimens from Sima del los Huesos and a variety of European Neandertal sites are predominately right‐handed. We argue the 9:1 handedness ratio in Neandertals and the earlier inhabitants of Europe constitutes evidence for a modern pattern of handedness well before the appearance of modern Homo sapiens.
ISSN:1060-1538
1520-6505
DOI:10.1002/evan.21554