Buccal striations on fossil human anterior teeth: evidence of handedness in the middle and early Upper Pleistocene

Castro, José Marı́a Bermúdez de; Bromage, Timothy G.; Jalvo, Yolanda Fernández

doi:10.1016/0047-2484(88)90029-2

Cited by 118 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Our observations suggest that for tasks requiring delicate manipulation and fine motor control, orangutans may prefer oral tool use over manual tool use, making them unique among living hominoids. This has intriguing implications for the evolutionary origins of elementary technology; unlike dentally assisted tool use which may leave microwear patterns that can be recognized [18], indications of tool use by soft tissue organs such as the lips or tongue will not be preserved in the fossil record.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oral Tool Use by Captive Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)

O’Malley

McGrew²

2000

IJFP

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Eight captive orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) were given wooden blocks embedded with raisins and bamboo as raw material for tool making in a study of manual laterality. In about three quarters of the raisin extraction bouts, the orangutans held the tool in the lips or teeth rather than in their hands. Three adult males and 2 adult females showed extreme (≥92%) preference for oral tool use, a subadult male and an adult female used oral tools about half the time, and 1 adult female preferred manual tool use. Most oral tool users made short tools (approx. 4–10 cm long) that were held in the lips and (probably) supported by the tongue. Preference for oral tool use does not correlate with body weight, age or sex, but it may be related to hand size or individual preference. This is the first report of customary oral tool use as the norm in captive orangutans; it resembles the behavioral patterns reported by van Schaik et al. and Fox et al. in nature.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oral Tool Use by Captive Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)

O’Malley

McGrew²

2000

IJFP

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“…Thus, it is not feasible to infer manual later ality from the modern human samples, and Bax and Ungar (1999) infered that these striations do not provide information about laterality in fossil hominids. In previous work, however, Bermudez de Castro et al (1988) and Lalueza Fox and Frayer (1997) have argued that the orientation of vestibular striations could provide information on laterality. Additionally, our experimental work (Lozano et ai, 2004) suggests that 89.1% of vestibular striations made by right-handed individuals are Ra, and the remaining are vertical, while 78.4% of cutmarks made by left-handed individuals are La, and the remainder are V. From these results and the dis tribution of orientations in the present study, we conclude that 15 SH individuals with a preferred orientation of Ra were right handed, or at least used their right hand to manipulate lithic tools.…”

Section: Angle Of Orientation and Laterality Of Vestibular Striationsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Non-masticatory uses of anterior teeth of Sima de los Huesos individuals (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain)

Ruiz

Castro

Carbonell

et al. 2008

Journal of Human Evolution

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Keywords:Cultural wear features Anterior dentition Para masticatory activities Middle PleistoceneIn this study we examine the labial and occlusal surfaces of incisors and canines of hominins recovered from the Sima de los Huesos (SH), middle Pleistocene site, in order to establish the possible extra masticatory use of anterior teeth. We have compared the microwear of these fossils with microwear from the anterior teeth of Australian Aborigines, a population characterized by ethnographic evidence of the use of their teeth as a third hand. These two samples of teeth were microscopically analyzed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Our results support the "cultural" origin of microwear observed on fossil teeth: we conclude that the SH ho minins used their anterior teeth as a "third hand" for para-or extra-masticatory activities.

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“…The evolution of human handedness can be traced by examining the artefactual evidence recovered from hominin fossil sites. Based on the reconstruction of stone tool manufacture and tool use, it appears that the early tool manufacturers expressed right-handedness as far back as 1-2 million years ago [Toth, 1985;Bermúdez de Castro et al, 1988;Fox and Frayer, 1997]. The artefactual evidence only dates as far back as 2 million years ago, it is therefore necessary to use other means to investigate handedness prior to this date.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Handedness in Captive Bonobos (Pan paniscus)

Harrison¹,

Nystrom²

2008

IJFP

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Species level right-handedness is often considered to be unique to humans. Handedness is held to be interrelated to our language ability and has been used as a means of tracing the evolution of language. Here we examine handedness in 3 captive groups of bonobos (Pan paniscus) comprising 22 individuals. We found no evidence for species level handedness. Conclusions that can be drawn from these findings are: (1) species level handedness evolved after the divergence of the Pan and Homo lineages; (2) inconsistent preferences may represent precursors to human handedness, and (3) Pan may have language abilities but these cannot be measured using handedness.

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Buccal striations on fossil human anterior teeth: evidence of handedness in the middle and early Upper Pleistocene

Cited by 118 publications

References 22 publications

Oral Tool Use by Captive Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)

Oral Tool Use by Captive Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)

Non-masticatory uses of anterior teeth of Sima de los Huesos individuals (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain)

Handedness in Captive Bonobos (Pan paniscus)

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