HAND FUNCTION AND TOOL BEHAVIOR IN EARLY HOMINIDS

Prompted by the discovery of the Olduvai Hominid 7 hand (Homo habilis) in 1960, studies of primate hands were conducted in order to understa nd better the functional morphology of the earliest hominids and the e volution of tool behavior. Since Napier's work in the early 1960s, the hand bones of a number of other species have been recovered in East a nd South Africa. New hominid finds and a prolific archaeological recor d have broadened our perspective on the evolution of tool behavior in Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and early Homo. A debate is underway a t this time on the questions of what exactly we can glean from the fos sil record regarding the evolution of tool behavior and what are the b est approaches to interpreting the evidence. I support the model of Na pier that identified morphological correlates of precision and power g rasping in the hands of extant primates and in early hominid hand bone s. At the same time, I question both the underlying rationale and atte mpts to identify more subtle aspects of precision grasping, based on p resent evidence. (C) 1998 Academic Press.