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The figures of the Stone Age people, which died out about 40,000 years ago, were much larger than ours. Additionally, a Neanderthal’s thumb would have come out of his hand at a much wider angle.
“If you were to shake a Neanderthal hand, you would notice this difference,” said Ameline Bardo, postdoctoral researcher at the School of Anthropology and Conservation at the University of Kent in the UK.
“There would be confusion about where to place the thumb, and for a thumb fight I think you would win in terms of speed and movement!” she said via email.
Neanderthals used their hands differently than we do, a new study published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports suggested. Our archaic parents, said lead study author Bardo, would have been more comfortable with “snap grips” – the grip we use when we hold tools with handles like a hammer.
To find out how Neanderthals used their hands, Bardo and his colleagues took what they said was a unique approach.
Other studies have quantified how the shapes of the thumb bones vary in Neanderthals and modern humans, as well as other fossil human relatives. However, most research to date has not looked at the bones in isolation — until now.
Joint movement analysis
The researchers used 3D mapping to analyze the joints between the bones responsible for thumb movement – called the “trapezo-metacarpal complex” – from the remains of five Neanderthals. Scientists then compared the results to measurements taken on the remains of five early modern humans and 50 recent modern adults.
“Our study is innovative in examining how the variation in the shapes and orientations of different bones and joints relate to each of them,” she said.
“Movement and weight bearing of the thumb is only possible through these bones, as well as ligaments and muscles, working together, so they need to be studied together,” she said.
While their fuller hands may suggest a lack of dexterity, Neanderthals were certainly able to use precision grip – as if we were holding a pencil, Bardo said.
“The joint at the base of the thumb in Neanderthal fossils is flatter with a smaller contact area between the bones, which is better suited to an extended thumb placed along the side of the hand,” he said. she explains. “This thumb posture suggests the regular use of powerful push grips.”
In contrast, human thumbs have joint surfaces that are generally larger and more curved, “which is an advantage when gripping objects between the finger and thumb pads, a precision grip,” she says. .
The powerful squeeze grip is said to have helped Neanderthals grasp spears while hunting, and use scrapers or stone knives to work with wood or animal hides. However, it could have been more difficult for Homo neanderthalensis to use strong precision grips, such as using stone flakes between the finger and thumb pads to cut meat, Bardo said.
However, she noted that there is a great deal of variation in modern humans when it comes to dexterity – and that could have existed in Neanderthals as well.
“Their hand anatomy and archaeological records clearly show that Neanderthals were very intelligent and sophisticated tool users and used many of the same tools as contemporary modern humans,” Bardo said.
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