Researchers at the University of Oxford have found that upright walking and larger brains likely drove the strong right-hand preference seen in modern humans. The findings come from an analysis of primate species and extinct hominins.
A team led by Dr. Thomas A. Püschel examined data from 2,025 monkeys and apes across 41 species. They used Bayesian modeling to test factors such as brain size and the ratio of arm to leg length, a marker of bipedal movement. Once these traits were included, humans no longer stood out as an evolutionary exception among primates.
