Meeting Abstract
The grasping hand is one of the key morphological hallmarks of human evolution. Our understanding of the human grasping hand is largely built on our interpretation of the specialized primate grasping hand (e.g. the presence of nails instead of claws and skeletal evidence for the presence of manipulative capabilities in early primates utilizing the fine branch milieu). Yet, a holistic approach including the whole forelimb and its behavioral context in grasping and manipulation is currently missing. In this study, we link grasping and manipulation ability to the shape of the lemur forelimb in a broad phylogenetic context. We analyzed behavioral data for 18 strepsirrhine species at the Duke Lemur Center. We performed surface geometric morphometrics analyses on the forelimb long bone shape (quantified from museum skeletal collections). Next, we linked the behavioral data to anatomical data to evaluate the strength of the relationship between grasping behavior and forelimb bone shape in primates. The data obtained greatly extend our understanding of the evolution of forelimb morphology in primates in relation to grasping and manipulation behavior. Our results show that forelimb shape and prehensile behavior are influenced by phylogeny. It also shows that there is a strong co-evolution between forelimb shape and prehensile behavior, especially for the humerus and radius. Interestingly, strong differences in behavior and forelimb shape are observed between some closely-related species.
