%0 Journal Article
%A Cofran, Zachary
%A Kivell, Tracy L.
%+ Department of Human Origins, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society
%T Adult Homo naledi hand skeleton points to life before birth : 
%G eng
%U https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0010-54E6-C
%R 10.5852/cr-palevol2024v23a28
%7 2024-11-27
%D 2024
%* Review method: peer-reviewed
%X Morphology evolves with changes in growth and development, but inferences about the ontogeny of extinct organisms are often limited by small and fragmentary fossil samples. The remarkable circumstances and preservation of Homo naledi material Berger et al. , 2015 from Rising Star Cave, South Africa, provide unique insight into the prenatal period of growth and development. Here we focus on what a nearly complete adult hand skeleton of H. naledi can tell us about embryonic pattern formation. On the one hand, it has been proposed that the proportional lengths of phalanges within a digit are established by a reaction-diffusion mechanism that can be described mathematically by the “inhibitory cascade” model. On the other hand, the proportional lengths of the second and fourth digits depend on prenatal exposure to sex hormones and may serve as a biomarker of social behavior. Viewed from a developmental perspective, the hand of H. naledi suggests that a simple developmental change could have facilitated the evolution of manual dexterity in early hominins. Furthermore, H. naledi has the highest second-to-fourth digit ratio of any known fossil hominin, which may reflect reduced aggression compared to other fossils of the genus Homo Linnaeus, 1758. The remarkable preservation of the hand skeleton of H. naledi provides a unique insight into life before birth.
%K Hominin, ontogeny, development, phalanx, prenatal androgens
%J Comptes Rendus Palevol 
%V 23
%N 28
%& 441
%P 441 - 451
%@ 1631-0683