Morphology of muscle attachment sites in the modern human hand does not reflect muscle architecture

Muscle attachment sites (entheses) on dry bones are regularly used by paleontologists to infer soft tissue anatomy and to reconstruct behaviors of extinct organisms. This method is commonly applied to fossil hominin hand bones to assess their abilities to participate in Paleolithic stone tool behavi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2016-06, Vol.6 (1), p.28353-28353, Article 28353
Main Authors: Williams-Hatala, E. M., Hatala, K. G., Hiles, S., Rabey, K. N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/181/19/2471
631/181/414
Anatomy
Anatomy & physiology
Architecture
Behavior
Bones
Endangered & extinct species
Fossils
Hominids
Humanities and Social Sciences
Morphology
multidisciplinary
Muscles
Paleontology
Participation
Physiology
Science
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Summary:Muscle attachment sites (entheses) on dry bones are regularly used by paleontologists to infer soft tissue anatomy and to reconstruct behaviors of extinct organisms. This method is commonly applied to fossil hominin hand bones to assess their abilities to participate in Paleolithic stone tool behaviors. Little is known, however, about how or even whether muscle anatomy and activity regimes influence the morphologies of their entheses, especially in the hand. Using the opponens muscles from a sample of modern humans, we tested the hypothesis that aspects of hand muscle architecture that are known to be influenced by behavior correlate with the size and shape of their associated entheses. Results show no consistent relationships between these behaviorally-influenced aspects of muscle architecture and entheseal morphology. Consequently, it is likely premature to infer patterns of behavior, such as stone tool making in fossil hominins, from these same entheses.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep28353