JOINT REMODELING AND EVOLUTION OF HUMAN HAND

  • 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 123  (FEB) , 157-201
Abstract
A functional morphological study was made of the joints of the primate hand, particular emphasis being placed upon the carpometacarpal and metacarpophalangeal joints, and the presumptive evolutionary history of these joints was charted by reference to a comparative series of mammals. Human joints have been quite strikingly modified in several ways, and these evolutionary changes may be logically correlated with the refined functional attributes of the human hand. The morphological background established was applied in a preliminary study of the hand bones of various fossil hominids, including these from South African sites attributed to the genus Australopithecus and those from Olduvai Gorge (OH7) which were attributed to the controversial taxon Homo habilis. The striking point about all these fossils is their essential primitiveness- their retention of many ape-like characters and the lack of those functional markers which distinguish the human hand.