Publication Date:
2015-06-06
Description:
Skinner and colleagues (Research Article, 23 January 2015, p. 395), based on metacarpal trabecular bone structure, argue that Australopithecus africanus employed human-like dexterity for stone tool making and use 3 million years ago. However, their evolutionary and biological assumptions are misinformed, failing to refute the previously existing hypothesis that human-like manipulation preceded systematized stone tool manufacture, as indicated by the fossil record.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Almecija, Sergio -- Wallace, Ian J -- Judex, Stefan -- Alba, David M -- Moya-Sola, Salvador -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jun 5;348(6239):1101. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa8414.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA. Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, Science and Engineering Hall, 800 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC 20052, USA. Institut Catala de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, Carrer de les Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, Spain. sergio.almecija@gmail.com. ; Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA. ; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA. ; Institut Catala de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, Carrer de les Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, Spain. ; ICREA at Institut Catala de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont and Unitat d'Antropologia Biologica (Departament BABVE), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-CP, Carrer de les Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, Spain.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26045428" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
*Biological Evolution
;
Humans
;
Metacarpal Bones/*anatomy & histology
;
Metacarpus/*anatomy & histology
;
Thumb/*anatomy & histology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
Permalink
