The co-evolution of human hands and tool using behaviour

人手与工具使用行为的共同进化

• 批准号: NE/R011168/1
• 负责人: William Sellers
• 金额: $ 61.43万
• 依托单位: University of Manchester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2018 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FR011168%2F1
• 关键词: co; evolution; human; hands; tool

When you talk to people about what makes humans different from other animals, one of the features that they will rapidly identify is the human hand. Indeed they are very likely to identify the 'opposable thumb' as a uniquely human characteristic. Whilst it can be argued that this is not strictly true, it is certainly the case that there are no other animals that have anything like the degree of precise control of their hands that humans have. We take for granted the fine movements of individual fingers that allow us to play the piano or tie our shoelaces, and these are activities that are impossible for non-humans to achieve. It is likely that the evolutionary history of our species is very closely linked to the evolutionary history of our hands and this is therefore an important area for scientific study. We currently know a great deal about how the shape of our hands has changed from those of closely related species but we actually know very little about how these shape changes are linked to how the hand functions. The story of our divergence from the common ancestor of chimpanzees and modern humans includes walking on our hindlimbs, the creation of stone tools, the increase in our intelligence, and living in extended social groups. The change in function of the human hand by losing its locomotor role and allowing its specialisation for manipulating and sensing the world, and extending its role in communication becomes a compelling narrative. In particular the idea that the evolution of our hands is closely linked to our adoption of increasingly sophisticated tools seems extremely plausible.Thus the aim of this research project is to explore the changes in functional capabilities of the human hand and to use this information to evaluate the evolutionary history of the hand and its relationship to tool use and manufacture. To achieve this goal we need to collect information about how the individual parts of the hand are used in humans. This needs to be done in a controlled fashion so that we can make objective comparisons of the mechanical requirements of different actions that we can link to specific artifacts in the achaeological record. We therefore propose to collect movement and force information from humans whilst performing such a range of tasks. We will use a range of exciting new technologies developed for virtual reality and movie special effects where hand and finger movements can be recorded automatically using specially instrumented gloves and by attaching reflective markers to the fingers. In addition simply recording this information is insufficient to fully understand a mechanism as complex as a hand. We will also construct 3D computer simulations of these hand and arm movements using information from medical imaging and dissections. We will then use a variety of sophisticated mechanical engineering techniques to evaluate how the individual bones and muscles function within the hand. We also need to evaluate how human hand function has changed over time and this means that we need to investigate the hands of fossil primates as well as their living relatives. To do this we will create equivalent computer simulations for these extinct species reconstructed from the fossil bones. The computer models will allow us to predict the capabilities of these species and we will be able to directly evaluate the changes in locomotor, foraging and tool use capabilities of the hands of our closest ancestors over time.

当你和人们谈论人类与其他动物的不同之处时，他们会很快识别出人类的手。事实上，他们很可能将“对生拇指”视为人类独有的特征。虽然可以争辩说这不是严格正确的，但可以肯定的是，没有其他动物像人类那样精确地控制他们的手。我们认为手指的精细动作是理所当然的，可以让我们弹钢琴或系鞋带，这些都是非人类不可能完成的活动。我们人类的进化史很可能与我们手的进化史密切相关，因此这是科学研究的一个重要领域。目前，我们对人类手的形状如何从密切相关的物种中改变了很多，但我们实际上对这些形状变化如何与手的功能联系起来知之甚少。我们与黑猩猩和现代人的共同祖先的分歧包括用我们的后肢行走，石器的创造，我们的智力增加，以及生活在扩展的社会群体中。人手功能的改变，失去了运动的作用，使其专门用于操纵和感知世界，并扩大了其在通信中的作用，这成为一个令人信服的叙述。特别是我们的手的进化与我们采用越来越复杂的工具密切相关的想法似乎非常合理。因此，本研究项目的目的是探索人类手的功能能力的变化，并利用这些信息来评估手的进化历史及其与工具使用和制造的关系。为了实现这一目标，我们需要收集有关人类如何使用手部各个部分的信息。这需要以一种受控的方式来完成，这样我们就可以对不同动作的机械要求进行客观的比较，我们可以将这些机械要求与非古生物学记录中的特定人工制品联系起来。因此，我们建议在执行这样一系列任务的同时从人类那里收集运动和力量信息。我们将使用一系列令人兴奋的新技术，这些技术是为虚拟现实和电影特效开发的，通过使用特殊的仪器手套和在手指上贴上反射标记，可以自动记录手和手指的运动。此外，简单地记录这些信息不足以完全理解像手这样复杂的机制。我们还将使用医学成像和解剖的信息构建这些手和手臂运动的3D计算机模拟。然后，我们将使用各种复杂的机械工程技术来评估手部的骨骼和肌肉功能。我们还需要评估人类手部功能如何随着时间的推移而变化，这意味着我们需要调查化石灵长类动物及其亲属的手部。为此，我们将为这些从化石骨骼重建的灭绝物种创建等效的计算机模拟。计算机模型将使我们能够预测这些物种的能力，我们将能够直接评估随着时间的推移，我们最接近的祖先的手在运动，觅食和工具使用能力方面的变化。

项目成果

Supplementary Tables 2-14 from Convex hull estimation of mammalian body segment parameters

补充表2-14来自哺乳动物身体节段参数的凸包估计

• DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.14832990
• 发表时间: 2021
• 作者: Coatham S

Convex hull estimation of mammalian body segment parameters.

• DOI: 10.1098/rsos.210836
• 发表时间: 2021-06
• 期刊: Royal Society open science
• 影响因子: 3.5
• 作者: Coatham SJ;Sellers WI;Püschel TA
• 通讯作者: Püschel TA

Inferring lifestyle for Aves and Theropoda: a model based on curvatures of extant avian ungual bones

推断鸟类和兽脚类的生活方式：基于现存鸟类爪骨曲率的模型

• DOI: 10.1101/517375
• 发表时间: 2019
• 作者: Cobb S

Supplementary Tables 15-20 from Convex hull estimation of mammalian body segment parameters

补充表15-20来自哺乳动物身体节段参数的凸包估计

• DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.14832996
• 发表时间: 2021
• 作者: Coatham S

Phylomorphospace of the extant platyrrhine sample computed using the morphometric data. from Inferring locomotor behaviours in Miocene New World monkeys using finite-element analysis, geometric morphometrics and machine-learning classification...

使用形态测量数据计算现存阔鼻草样本的叶形态空间。

• DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.7042442
• 发表时间: 2018
• 作者: Püschel T