Handedness in Neandertals from the El Sidron (Asturias, Spain): evidence from instrumental striations with ontogenetic inferences.

ABSTRACT: The developed cognitive capabilities for Homo sapiens seems to be the result of a specialized and lateralized brain, and as a result of this, humans display the highest degree of manual specialization or handedness among the primates. Studies regarding its emergence and distribution within the genus Homo show that handedness is present very early. The mode in which it was articulated and spread across the different species during the course of human evolution could provide information about our own cognitive capacities. Here we report the manual laterality attributed to eleven 49,000 old Neandertal individuals from El Sidrón cave (Spain), through the study of instrumental or cultural striations on the anterior dentition. Our results show a predominant pattern addressed to right-handers. Th

SUBMITTER: Estalrrich A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3646041 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature