Human Hand Evolution

How our hands have become like this today? This has been a longstanding question. Because of my previous hand-related research experience in the clinical field, I had the opportunity to work on the GRASP project aiming to answer the questions about human hand evolution.

My role in the project was to develop an experimental system for collecting data from human and nonhuman primate fingers [published paper]. The biomechanical data acquired from the cadaveric fingers were further used to develop the musculoskeletal models [published paper]. Furthermore, the joint angles and hand pressure distributions during bonobo locomotion were applied to the models for estimating the joint loads [published paper].

As bone structure adapted to the force it experienced during life activities, at least to some degree, the bone structure should reflect the activity type during life. Therefore, all of these biomechanical data and further simulations can help us to postulate the life activities of the hand bones preserved in the fossil record.