Hands of primates
The hand commonly is considered to have exerted great influence on the evolution of typically human features, like upright posture, stereoscopic vision, "manipulative" handling of parts of the environment. The hands of the other primates are not less closely related to the necessities of life than in humans. But beyond this general statement, only few satisfying and precise analyses of their functions exist. Most considerations begin and end up with Napier's discrimination and definition of power grip and precision grip - which has turned out to be very useful in surgery - and the restating of man's distinctiveness. The characteristic features of the human hand are to a large extent shared by the hands of other primates, and therefore it seems logical to approach the human hand by looking into the details of hand function and hand morphology in non-human primates. This book presents a well-integrated series of articles which deepen our knowledge regarding the problems mentioned above.Hand use -- Hand usage in the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta Linnaeus 1758) when solving manipulative tasks / S. Schöneich --Locomotive and manipulative use of the hand in the Cayo Santiago macaques (Macaca mulatta) / R.G. Rawlins -- Different hand postures for pounding nuts with natural hammers by wild chimpanzees / C. Boesch & H. Boesch --Lateralised handeness, bipedalism and cortical specialisation / P.H. Brenot -- Development of prehension in human and gorilla infants / M.E. Redshaw -- Grasping techniques and hand preferences in Hominoidea / M. Christel -- Energetic cost of nut-cracking behaviour in wild chimpanzees / M.M. Günther & C. Boesch -- Hand function -- Biometrical characteristics of primate hands / F.K. Jouffroy, M. Godinot & Y. Nakano -- New results concerning the vascularization of primate hands. Part I: the palmar arterial arches in Cercopithecidae, Pongidae, Hominidae and other primates / A. Ikeda & S. Matsumoto(cont) New results concerning the vascularization of primate hands. Part II: the capillaries in the dermal ridges of fingers and palms in man and monkeys / A. Ikeda & N. Umeda -- Adaptations in the hands of cercopithecoids and callitrichids / W. Maier -- Joints and muscles of hands and paws / R. McN. Alexander -- Muscle fibre and tendon lengths in primate extremities / G.P. Rauwerdink -- Biomechanical determinants of reduction of the second ray in Lorisinae / U. Nieschalk & B. Demes --Functional morphology of the human carpus / J. Koebke -- Biomechanical considerations to explain important morphological characters of primate hands / H. Preuschoft ... [et al.] -- Elasticity of hand and forefoot tendons / R.F. Ker -- Relationship between the function and the inner cortical structure of metacarpal and phalangeal bones / E. Doden --Investigations on the biomechanical significance of dermatoglyphic ridges / C. Buck & H. Bär(cont) Hand development -- Constructional preconditions of the basic organization of the tetrapod limb / M.F. Gutmann -- Evolution and the hand / J.M.F. Landsmeer -- Survey of fossil primate hands / M. Godinot & K.C. Beard -- Oldest primate hands: additional remarks and observations / J.L. Franzen -- New hand bones of the early Miocene hominoid Proconsul and their implications for the evolution of the hominoid wrist / K.C. Beard, M.F. Teaford & A. Walker -- On the development of the human hand / B. Christ ... [et al.]
Holger Preuschoft and David J. Chivers (eds.)ill. ; 25 cm
