By 3D-scanning the eight interlocking wrist bones of over 2,000 living primates and 55 fossil hominins, researchers mapped how the human carpus evolved. The analysis nests us deeply among African apes, sharing features like a fused scaphoid-centrale that lock the wrist during knuckle-walking. The finding suggests our dexterous, tool-making hands were modified from a knuckle-walking ancestor.

This episode was generated by AI from the cited research paper.