TY - JOUR
T1 - Wild chimpanzees show population-level handedness for tool use
AU - Lonsdorf, Elizabeth V.
AU - Hopkins, William D.
PY - 2005/8/30
Y1 - 2005/8/30
N2 - Whether nonhuman primates exhibit population-level handedness remains a topic of considerable theoretical and empirical debate. One continued subject of discussion is whether evidence of population-level handedness in primates is confined to studies in captive animals or whether it is in both captive and wild subjects. Here, we report evidence of population-level handedness in wild chimpanzees for a tool-use task known as "termite-fishing." We subsequently compared the handedness for termite-fishing with other published reports on handedness for nut-cracking and wadge-dipping and found task-specific differences in handedness. Last, when combing all of the published data on tool use in wild chimpanzees, we show that hand preferences are heritable. Contrary to previous claims, our results demonstrate that population-level handedness is evident in wild chimpanzees and suggest that the antecedents of lateralization of function associated with hand use were present at least 5 million years ago, before the Pan-Homo split.
AB - Whether nonhuman primates exhibit population-level handedness remains a topic of considerable theoretical and empirical debate. One continued subject of discussion is whether evidence of population-level handedness in primates is confined to studies in captive animals or whether it is in both captive and wild subjects. Here, we report evidence of population-level handedness in wild chimpanzees for a tool-use task known as "termite-fishing." We subsequently compared the handedness for termite-fishing with other published reports on handedness for nut-cracking and wadge-dipping and found task-specific differences in handedness. Last, when combing all of the published data on tool use in wild chimpanzees, we show that hand preferences are heritable. Contrary to previous claims, our results demonstrate that population-level handedness is evident in wild chimpanzees and suggest that the antecedents of lateralization of function associated with hand use were present at least 5 million years ago, before the Pan-Homo split.
KW - Hemisphere specialization
KW - Laterality
KW - Primates
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U2 - 10.1073/pnas.0505806102
DO - 10.1073/pnas.0505806102
M3 - Article
C2 - 16105943
AN - SCOPUS:24644454258
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 102
SP - 12634
EP - 12638
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 35
ER -