Are humans unique? Are gorillas and/or orangutans unique? What manual specificities exist for each species? - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2016

Are humans unique? Are gorillas and/or orangutans unique? What manual specificities exist for each species?

Résumé

Humans are known to possess more complex manual abilities than non-human primates. Though many other primates need their hands for locomotion, they still show some manual abilities that are comparable to humans. However, the dynamic manipulative skills of primates have not been fully explored, especially during the same task. To fill this gap, we investigated performance indicators (e.g. duration of the task, number of wrist movements use etc.) linked to manipulative abilities of humans in the most terrestrial great apes (gorillas, Gorilla gorilla) and arboreal great apes (orangutans, Pongo sp.) during the same tool use task. The results clearly show that humans perform better than gorillas and orangutans, with performance linked to in-hand movements and specific grip types. Only humans use bimanual grip type, pad-to-pad precision grip and in hand-movements involving fingertips. Gorillas and orangutans use more power grips and gorillas develop more in-hand manipulation than orangutans showing more mouth manipulation. Finally, orangutans show more intra-species variability in the grip techniques. Human specificities quantified here could be explained by morphological and/or neuromuscular coordination differences relative to gorillas and orangutans. However, humans may have no “unique” manual abilities and non-humans primate species may not need to use these abilities to succeed at the task. Differences between these great apes could be explained by their different lifestyles (the most terrestrial of great apes versus the most arboreal).
Fichier non déposé

Dates et versions

hal-03981239 , version 1 (09-02-2023)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-03981239 , version 1

Citer

Ameline Bardo, Raphael Cornette, Antony Borel, Emmanuelle Pouydebat. Are humans unique? Are gorillas and/or orangutans unique? What manual specificities exist for each species?. 23ème Benelux Congress of Zoology, Dec 2016, Anvers, Belgium. ⟨hal-03981239⟩
4 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More