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The Primate Wrist

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The Evolution of the Primate Hand

Part of the book series: Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects ((DIPR))

Abstract

This chapter reviews our current understanding of the extant primate wrist. Following Wood Jones and Napier, the morphology of the primate wrist can be generally described as primitive. It is this primitiveness that allows for the great degree of versatility in wrist function that primates require to navigate their complex locomotor and manipulative environments. This chapter focuses on the variation in bony morphology across different primate clades, ranging from strepsirrhines to hominoids, and the functional implications of this morphological variation with regards to hand posture and loading during locomotion and manipulation. Morphological information is divided broadly into four articular regions of the wrist –the antebrachiocarpal, radial carpometacarpal, midcarpal, and ulnar carpometacarpal joints – with further discussion of individual carpals bones and distinct features of particular taxa. Primitive features of the wrist are discussed within a broader mammalian comparative context, while the functional implications of specialized or convergent morphology is highlighted within and across taxa and clades.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Note that the particular Macaca specimen depicted in Fig. 3.6 and adapted from Jouffroy and Medina (2002) seems to display an unusual carpal placement that may suggest a greater degree of ulnar deviation (measured as 56°) than is typical for Macaca. Jouffroy and Medina (2002) do not provide information on the species or sample size. For comparison, Richmond (2006), using different methods, reports 45° ulnar deviation in Erythrocebus and 61° ulnar deviation in Papio.

    Fig. 3.6
    figure 6

    Radial carpometacarpal joints. Top row showing the articulated radial carpometacarpal joints in some strepsirrhines (radial view) and Cercopithecus (palmar and dorsal views). Bottom row showing articulated radial carpal joints in Hylobates (palmar, radial and dorsal views), and re-articulated carpals in Gorilla (radial and ulnar views). Carpal bones included in radial carpal joints are labelled. Abbreviations: Tm trapezium, Td trapezoid, S scaphoid, Oc os centrale, pp prepollex, C capitate, Mc1 first metacarpal, Mc2 second metacarpal. All specimens are shown as the right side and scaled to approximately the same size (scale represents 1 cm for each taxon)

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Acknowledgments

This review is the result of the knowledge, guidance, encouragement, expertise, generosity and patience of many, many people. Among them, I am grateful to David Begun with whom my interest in the wrist and hand initially developed, Daniel Schmitt and Roshna Wunderlich who taught and inspired me think about this anatomy in a completely new way, Lee Berger and Steve Churchill whose amazing fossil discoveries gave me the opportunity to move beyond the wrist, and Matthew Skinner, Jean-Jacques Hublin, Richard Lazenby and Dieter Pahr, who gave me the opportunity to look “inside” these bones for the first time. I thank the many museum curators whose generosity allowed me access to collections in their care. I am also grateful for the many insightful discussions that I have had over the years with fellow researchers of the hand, including (but not limited to) Caley Orr, Matt Tocheri, Biren Patel, Nick Stephens, Erin Marie Williams-Hatala, Mary Marzke, Campbell Rolian, Carol Ward, Sergio Almécija, and especially Pierre Lemelin, Daniel Schmitt and Brian Richmond, whose expertise and constructive comments greatly improved this chapter in particular. This work was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, General Motors Women in Science and Mathematics Award, The University of Toronto, The Max Planck Society, and the European Research Council Starting Grant #336301.

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  1. Animal Postcranial Evolution (APE) Lab, Skeletal Biology Research Center, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NR, UK

    Tracy L. Kivell

  2. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany

    Tracy L. Kivell

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  1. Tracy L. Kivell
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Correspondence to Tracy L. Kivell .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary An, Leipzig, Germany

    Tracy L. Kivell

  2. Division of Anatomy Department of Surgery Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Pierre Lemelin

  3. Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, USA

    Brian G. Richmond

  4. Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University , Durham, North Carolina, USA

    Daniel Schmitt

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Kivell, T.L. (2016). The Primate Wrist. In: Kivell, T., Lemelin, P., Richmond, B., Schmitt, D. (eds) The Evolution of the Primate Hand. Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3646-5_3

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