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(Journalist)
– If you are time traveling and encounter an angry Neanderthal, be sure to ask for a thumb war rather than a full blown war. According to new research, Neanderthals’ hands were different from ours, with a thumb sticking out at a wider angle than what you see when looking at your own hand. “If you were to shake a Neanderthal hand, you would notice this difference … There would be confusion about where to place the thumb,” says Ameline Bardo, lead author of the first study to compare the bones and joints of Neanderthal hands with those of modern humans, per CNN. In a war of the thumb, modern humans would win “in terms of speed and movement,” Bardo adds. Bardo worked with colleagues to compare the hand bones of five Neanderthals with those of five early Homo sapiens and 50 recent modern people.
The researchers found that “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.” . This suggests that Neanderthals were adept at using an electrical outlet, which, according to a press release, is one “where objects are held like a hammer, between the fingers and the palm with the force of the steering. inch. This may indicate regular use of the type of grip one would use on a manipulated tool, reads the study published Thursday in Scientific reports. Researchers say the Neanderthals could have pulled out the precision handles we use today to hold objects between fingertips and thumbs, but with difficulty. Researchers then hope to compare the bones of the Neanderthals with specific tools they could have used, reports Reverse. (Read more Neanderthal stories.)
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