This cookie is used to manage the interaction with the online bots. This cookie is set by the provider Akamai Bot Manager. This cookie is managed by Amazon Web Services and is used for load balancing. Issued by Microsoft's ASP.NET Application, this cookie stores session data during a user's website visit. This cookie is used to detect and defend when a client attempt to replay a cookie.This cookie manages the interaction with online bots and takes the appropriate actions. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. In the meantime, next time you high-five an orangutan, remember to use your left hand. “I think there’s a lot of good, creative thinking around it.” “People are trying to bring together lots of different data from lots of different sources and disciplines, and then come up with a larger conceptual idea and a larger theory,” says Hopkins. For example, if all the fish in a group prefer the same direction, it’s easier for them to swim and navigate as a shoal. Meanwhile, some researchers think that population-level handedness is beneficial for social species, according to Cantalupo. If only one side is enlisted for certain tasks, that “most likely speeds up reaction time,” says Cantalupo. One leading theory for the benefits of handedness in an individual organism stems from its connection to brain asymmetry, and the division of labor between the two halves of the brain. “We’re in no man’s land a little bit,” Hopkins admits. Related Article The Hidden Beauty Of The Human Placenta Now that we have examples of non-human handedness, the next question is, why do animals take sides? In other words, as Hopkins puts it, “what’s the underlying evolutionary mechanism that’s selective for this?” Researchers are still theorizing. On the other hand (ahem), about 66 percent of orangutans are lefties. Hopkins offers some examples from his own research: In chimpanzee populations, about 65-70 percent are right-handed. But only recently have they started to learn that, like Homo sapiens, other species can be characteristically handed-meaning that “a statistically significant majority of the individuals in a population prefer one hand to the other,” says Bill Hopkins, who studies lateralization and handedness in primates at Georgia State University. Researchers have known for decades that other animals demonstrate handedness. “You see asymmetry going all the way down to fish,” says Claudio Cantalupo, who studies handedness and brain asymmetry in humans and nonhuman primates at Clemson University. Related Segment Jane Goodall On The Future Of Evolutionary Scienceīrain asymmetry was once considered unique to humans, but now we know that it’s common in vertebrates.

Human hands vs chimpanzee hand