The chimpanzee hand is anatomically more developed than that of humans. Monkey species

Often we are forced to believe that man descended from apes. And that science has discovered such a similarity between human and chimpanzee DNA that leaves no doubt about their origin from a common ancestor. Is this true? Are humans really just evolved apes? Let's look at the differences between monkeys and humans.

It is noteworthy that human DNA allows us to make complex calculations, write poetry, build cathedrals, walking on the moon while chimpanzees catch and eat each other's fleas. As information accumulates, the gap between humans and apes becomes increasingly clear. The following are just a few of the differences that cannot be explained by minor internal changes: rare mutations or survival of the fittest.

1 Tails - where did they go? There is no intermediate state between having a tail and not having a tail.

2 Our newborns are different from baby animals. Their sense organs are quite developed, the weight of the brain and body is much greater than that of monkeys, but with all this, our babies are helpless and more dependent on their parents. Gorilla babies can stand on their feet 20 weeks after birth, but human babies can stand only after 43 weeks. During the first year of life, a person develops functions that baby animals have before birth. Is this progress?

3 Many primates and most mammals produce their own vitamin C. We, as the “strongest,” apparently lost this ability “somewhere along the way to survival.”

4 Monkeys' feet are similar to their hands - they have thumb The legs are mobile, directed to the side and opposed to the other fingers, resembling the thumb. In humans, the big toe is directed forward and not opposed to the rest, otherwise we could, having taken off our shoes, easily lift objects with the help of the big toe or even start writing with our feet.

5 Monkeys have no arch in their feet! When walking, our foot, thanks to the arch, absorbs all loads, shocks and impacts. If man descended from ancient monkeys, then the arch of his foot should have appeared from scratch. However, a spring vault is not just a small part, but a highly complex mechanism. Without him, our life would be completely different. Just imagine a world without upright walking, sports, games and long walks!

6 A person does not have a continuous coat of hair: if a person shares a common ancestor with monkeys, where did the thick hair go from the monkey’s body? Our body is relatively hairless (disadvantage) and completely devoid of tactile hair. There are no other intermediate, partially hairy species known.

7 Human skin is rigidly attached to the muscular frame, which is characteristic only of marine mammals.

8 People are the only ones land creatures capable of consciously holding their breath. This seemingly “insignificant detail” is very important, since an essential condition for the ability to speak is a high degree of conscious control of breathing, which we do not share with any other animal living on land. Desperate to find a land-based “missing link” and based on these unique properties humans, some evolutionists have seriously suggested that we evolved from aquatic animals!

9 Among primates, only humans have Blue eyes and curly hair.

10 We have a unique speech apparatus that provides the finest articulation and articulate speech.

11 In humans, the larynx occupies a much lower position in relation to the mouth than in monkeys. Due to this, our pharynx and mouth form a common “tube”, which plays an important role as a speech resonator. This ensures better resonance - necessary condition to pronounce vowel sounds. Interestingly, a drooping larynx is a disadvantage: unlike other primates, humans cannot eat or drink and breathe at the same time without choking.

12 The thumb of our hand is well developed, strongly opposed to the rest and very mobile. Monkeys have hook-shaped hands with a short and weak thumb. No element of culture would exist without our unique thumb! Coincidence or design?

13 Only humans have true upright posture. Sometimes, when monkeys are carrying food, they can walk or run on two limbs. However, the distance they travel this way is quite limited. In addition, the way monkeys walk on two legs is completely different from how humans walk on two legs. A special human approach requires a complex integration of many skeletal and muscle features our hips, legs and feet.

14 Humans are able to support our body weight on our feet while walking because our hips meet at our knees, forming a unique 9-degree bearing angle with the tibia (in other words, we have “knees”). Conversely, chimpanzees and gorillas have widely spaced, straight legs with a bearing angle of almost zero. When walking, these animals distribute the weight of their body on their feet, swaying their body from side to side and moving using the familiar “monkey gait”.

15 The complexity of the human brain is much greater than that of monkeys. It is approximately 2.5 times larger than the brain great apes by volume and 3–4 times by mass. Humans have a highly developed cortex cerebral hemispheres brain, where the most important centers of the psyche and speech are located. Unlike monkeys, only humans have a complete Sylvian fissure, consisting of the anterior horizontal, anterior ascending and posterior branches.

Based on site materials

Primate hand

In most other mammals, the grasping organs are a pair of jaws with teeth or two front paws that press together. And only in primates the thumb on the hand is clearly opposed to the other fingers, which makes the hand a very convenient grasping device in which the other fingers act as a single unit. Here is a demonstration of this fact, but before proceeding with the practical experiment, read the following warning:

While performing the exercise below, bend your index finger and DO NOT HOLD middle finger with the other hand, otherwise you may damage the forearm tendon.

After reading the warning, place one palm on a flat surface, back side down. Bend your little finger, trying to touch it to your palm. Please note that, together with the little finger, it rose and ring finger, and its movement occurs automatically, regardless of your will. And in the same way, if you bend your index finger, then your middle finger will follow it. This happens because the hand, in the process of evolution, has adapted to grasp, and to grab something with minimal effort and with maximum speed possible if the fingers are connected to the same mechanism. In our hand, the gripping mechanism is “headed” by the little finger. If you set yourself the task of quickly squeezing your fingers one by one so that they touch your palm, then it is much more convenient to start with the little finger and finish index finger, and not vice versa.

Opposite these fingers is the thumb. This is not uncommon in the animal kingdom, but in few groups this feature extends to all members of the group. Birds of the order Passeriformes have opposable digits, although in some species it is one digit out of four, and in others two digits are opposed to the other two digits. Some reptiles, such as the branch-walking chameleon, also have opposable toes. In invertebrates, grasping organs take various shapes– the claws of crabs and scorpions come to mind first, as well as the forelimbs of insects such as the praying mantis. All these organs are used to manipulate objects (the word "manipulation" comes from the Latin manus, which means "hand").

Our thumb is opposed to the other fingers only on our hands; in other primates this feature extends to all limbs. Humans lost the opposable toe as they descended from the trees to the ground, but the size of the big toe still indicates its special role in the past.

Compared to all monkeys, man has the most dexterous hand. We can easily touch the tip of our thumb with the tips of all our other fingers because it is relatively long. The chimpanzee's thumb is much shorter; they can also manipulate objects, but to a lesser extent. When monkeys hang and swing from a branch, their thumb usually does not wrap around it. They simply fold their remaining fingers into a hook and grab the branch with them. The thumb does not take part in the formation of this “hook”. A chimpanzee only wraps all its fingers around a branch when it moves slowly along it or stands on top of it, but even then, like most great apes, she does not so much grab a branch as rely on her knuckles, as when walking on the ground.

Chimpanzee palm and human palm.

Primates have another evolutionary adaptation for manipulation on their hands. In most of their species, the claws have turned into flat nails. Thus, the fingertips are protected from damage, but the fingertips retain sensitivity. With these pads, primates can press on objects, grasp them and feel any surface, even the smoothest, without scratching it. To increase friction, the skin in this area is covered with fine wrinkles. This is why we leave fingerprints.

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According to genetic research that has just been carried out, there are incomparably large differences between humans and apes.

Remarkably, human DNA allows us to perform complex calculations, write poetry, build cathedrals, walk on the moon, while chimpanzees catch and eat each other's fleas. As information accumulates, the gap between humans and apes becomes increasingly clear. The following are just a few of the differences that cannot be explained by minor internal changes, rare mutations, or survival of the fittest.

1 Tails - where did they go? There is no intermediate state between having a tail and not having a tail.

3 Many primates and most mammals produce their own vitamin C. We, as the “strongest,” apparently lost this ability “somewhere along the way to survival.”

4 Monkeys' feet are similar to their hands - their big toe is movable, directed to the side and opposed to the rest of the fingers, resembling the thumb of a hand. In humans, the big toe is directed forward and not opposed to the rest, otherwise we could, having taken off our shoes, easily lift objects with the help of the big toe or even start writing with our feet.

Differences between monkeys and humans

7 Human skin is rigidly attached to the muscular frame, which is characteristic only of marine mammals.

8 Humans are the only land creatures that can consciously hold their breath. This seemingly “insignificant detail” is very important, since an essential condition for the ability to speak is a high degree of conscious control of breathing, which we do not share with any other animal living on land. Desperate to find a land-based "missing link" and based on these unique human properties, some evolutionists have seriously proposed that we evolved from aquatic animals!

9 Among primates, only humans have blue eyes and curly hair.

10 We have a unique speech apparatus that provides the finest articulation and articulate speech.

11 In humans, the larynx occupies a much lower position in relation to the mouth than in monkeys. Due to this, our pharynx and mouth form a common “tube”, which plays an important role as a speech resonator. This ensures better resonance - a necessary condition for pronouncing vowel sounds. Interestingly, a drooping larynx is a disadvantage: unlike other primates, humans cannot eat or drink and breathe at the same time without choking.

13 Only humans have true upright posture. Sometimes, when monkeys are carrying food, they can walk or run on two limbs. However, the distance they travel this way is quite limited. In addition, the way monkeys walk on two legs is completely different from how humans walk on two legs. The unique human approach requires a complex integration of the many skeletal and muscular features of our hips, legs and feet.

15 The complexity of the human brain is much greater than that of monkeys. It is approximately 2.5 times larger than the brain of great apes in volume and 3–4 times larger in mass. A person has a highly developed cerebral cortex, in which the most important centers of the psyche and speech are located. Unlike monkeys, only humans have a complete Sylvian fissure, consisting of the anterior horizontal, anterior ascending and posterior branches.

An amazing discovery was made by anthropologists. These workers of science were able to prove the seemingly unthinkable: from an anatomical point of view, chimpanzee hands are more perfect than human hands.

This indicates that the common ancestor of chimpanzees and homo sapiens did not bear noticeable similarities to modern great apes, which are both humans and chimpanzees. In any case, this is exactly what the scientists themselves said on the pages of the Nature Communications publication.

As Owen Lovejoy, an anatomist from the University of Kent, argues on the Science website, the discoveries made by anthropologists since the discovery of the remains of Ardipithecus have fortunately begun to penetrate the consciousness of large sections of the scientific community, which is gradually agreeing that we have in common with The chimpanzee ancestor was not at all like them. After all, chimpanzees are adapted to a lifestyle on high tree branches and eating fruit and therefore can hardly be used as an example of the probable appearance of our common ancestors.

In practice, this statement was proven by a group of paleontologists and anthropologists, led by Sergio Almesihi from the University of Washington. To do this, it was necessary to compare the structure of the hands of Australopithecus sediba, Ardipithecus, humans and chimpanzees, as well as some others modern monkeys and the oldest primates.

First of all, scientists were interested in the ratio of length and a number of other anatomical features of the thumb and other parts of the hand. This made it possible to quite accurately not only trace, but also restore various evolutionary connections existing between various types primates.

Thanks to these anatomical characteristics, paleontologists have demonstrated that human hand, and not the hand of the chimpanzee, in its structure it was closer to the hand of Ardipithecus, Australopithecus and other ancient anthropoids. Therefore, anatomically, our hands are more primitive than the hands of chimpanzees.

As scientists emphasize, this conclusion not only does not refute Darwin’s theory of evolution, but, on the contrary, further confirms it. This is explained by the fact that, with sufficient prosperity, many species of living beings begin to specialize in a certain ecological niche, acquiring, as a result, highly specialized adaptations and at the same time losing universal traits, since it is the above-mentioned highly specialized adaptations that help them survive in specific conditions.

Chimpanzees are good example this mechanism, in particular their short thumbs and long hands, which are excellently adapted for life on tree branches.

At the same time, chimpanzees are almost incapable of efficiently performing some tasks that are familiar to us, for example, accurately throwing stones.

At the same time, it is the human hand, although it is more primitive and, accordingly, more universal, that gives it the ability to confidently solve a lot of different problems, without being capable of performing those specialized tasks that chimpanzees face.

A pygmy chimpanzee shows off its paw.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Anthropologists from George Washington University have established that, according to some morphological features, the structure of the hand Homosapiens closer to the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans than the hand of chimpanzees themselves, that is, human hand structure is more primitive than that of its closest living relatives. The work was published in the journal NatureCcommunications.

Scientists have measured the proportions of the thumb in relation to the other four fingers in a variety of living primates, including modern man and other monkeys. In addition, they used several already extinct species of monkeys for comparison, for example, proconsuls ( Proconsul), Neanderthals, and Ardipithecus ( Ardipithecus ramidus), close in structure to the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans, and Australopithecus sediba ( Australopithecus sediba), which some anthropologists consider to be the direct predecessor of the genus Homo.

To analyze the resulting proportions, the researchers used morphometric analysis taking into account phylogeny and sophisticated statistical methods, such as testing several models of alternative evolutionary options. Taken together, these methods made it possible not only to estimate the magnitude of variability in the length and position of the fingers, but also made it possible to determine the direction of their evolution.

It turned out that the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans had a relatively long thumb and rather short other fingers, which is very similar to the existing ratio of finger sizes in Homosapiens. Thus, humans retained a more conservative variant, inherited directly from an ancestor, while chimpanzees and orangutans continued to evolve toward a shortening of the thumb and lengthening of the other four fingers, which made it possible to more effectively grasp and move between tree branches. In other words, the structure of the hand of humans is evolutionarily more primitive than that of other apes (with the exception of gorillas, which, due to their terrestrial lifestyle, have finger proportions similar to humans).

Humans and chimpanzees split from a common ancestor seven million years ago. Among many other differences between the genera, one of the main ones is the setback and long thumb in humans, which allows them to touch the phalanges of any of the other four fingers and make precise and subtle grasping movements. At the same time, chimpanzees' fingers are longer, while the thumb is short and pressed against the palm. For a long time It was believed that the structure of the human hand is a rather late aromorphosis (a progressive change in structure), which became one of the factors in the development of tool activity and, as a consequence, influenced the enlargement of the brain in human ancestors. A new study contradicts this hypothesis.

The scientists’ conclusions are indirectly confirmed by the structure of the hand of Ardipithecus, who lived 4.4 million years ago, which is much closer to that of humans. As well as a study by the same group of anthropologists, published in 2010, which substantiates the ability of their closest predecessors, the Orrorin ( Orrorin), making precise grasping movements and manipulations as early as 6 million years ago, that is, a relatively short time after the separation of chimpanzees and humans.

The chimpanzee hand is anatomically more developed than that of humans. Monkey species

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