Study: Male Hands Evolved Specifically For Fighting
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (CBS Las Vegas) – These hands weren’t made for loving.
A recent study has concluded that human hands among men evolved to becoming fighting tools. The study, which was conducted by the University of Utah, found that the male hand had been built so that the fingers could be curled into a fist. David Carrier, a biology professor at the university, found that a male’s ability to make a fist was an early advantage in the evolution of humanity.
“We propose that the derived proportions of hominin hands reflect, in part, sexual selection to improve fighting performance,” Carrier wrote in the study.
The research indicated that Carrier’s team “found that peak forces, force impulses and peak jerk did not differ between the closed fist and open palm strikes.” The human fist, however, increases stiffness fourfold and more than doubles the ability to transmit a “punching” force.
“The role aggression has played in our evolution has not been adequately appreciated,” Carrier said in the study.
The research was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.