Human hands evolved to fight

Men's battles have fueled the evolution of human hands, making it different in shape from other primates.

In the life of trees, human beings need long fingers to grip the branches. But when people began to live on the ground and stood straight from 2.9 to 3.8 million years ago, their hands did not have to cling. So their shape begins to change very quickly to increase the level of dexterity.

Human hands evolved to help men fight more effectively.

Although chimpanzees also live on the ground and use their hands to perform many tasks, they still have tiny fingers and tiny index fingers. So David Carrier, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Utah in the US, wants to find out what causes a human hand to have a special shape compared to other primates. They guessed that the war between men directed the evolution of the right table.

Carrier and the University of Utah scientists demanded that 12 boxers who had fought for many years devote all their strength to punching and slapping sandbags. The team used many devices to measure the force that the hands of a group of boxers impact on sandbags.

The results show that the maximum force that human hands impact on sandbags in two punching and slapping positions is the same. However, when the boxer punches, the fingers are better protected. In addition, the ability to damage and break the punch of the punch is much higher than the slap.

"After people do not use their hands to climb trees, pick fruits, our ancestors have more options for punching and manipulating. In terms of morphology, want to do both things well, the shape of the hand. must be special, ' argues Milford Wolpoff, a University of Michigan anthropologist in the United States. Wolpoff did not participate in research at the University of Utah.