From Popular Science:
It’s thought that our hands are what make us human. Combined with our big brains, our fully opposable thumbs enabled our ancestors to make complex tools to conquer the world. But according to biologist David Carrier of Utah State University, that’s not all they were good for. He thinks the human hand’s uniqueness was shaped, in part, so we could punch each other in the face.
Carrier introduced this off-beat hypothesis a few years ago, to much controversy. Now he and his colleagues have come out with a study that sort of supports but doesn’t confirm the idea.
How could it?
The fact that we are the only animals with fists is hardly decisive. There are a number of reasons for making a fist, including protecting fingers/thumbs from cold or injury and pounding dough or wet clothes. Of course, the fist’s use in fistfighting must have been noticed fairly soon, but as the story notes,
Furthermore, our ape relatives have devised plenty of ways to hurt each other without the need for a clenched fist. How would a human punch stand up to the teeth and bludgeons of a chimpanzee or gorilla? We’ll leave it up to you to find out. Other apes fight predominantly with their forelimbs, yet they never evolved the ability to form a fist or stand upright.
You can read for yourself what the researchers did with the cadaver arms. Meanwhile,
So far the studies haven’t managed to disprove the hypothesis, far-fetched as it may seem. More.
Has there ever been any way of disproving a pop culture evolution thesis?
See also: Human origins: The war of trivial explanations
Follow UD News at Twitter!