The monkey is considered one of the oldest animals in the world that still exists in the present era. Most primates belong to the vast and diversified animal group known as monkeys. Despite having a common ancestry with monkeys, humans, chimpanzees, and other apes are part of a different species of primates that branched off from monkeys millions of years ago. Like human beings, monkey hands also have different skeletons and specifications. This blog is for you if you want to know about monkeys’ hands in detail.
Table of contents
- How many hands does a monkey have?
- Fingers of a monkey’s hand
- Is the hand of a monkey the same as a human hand?
- Key features of a monkey hand
- Do monkey hands have a firm grip?
- Conclusion
How many hands does a monkey have?
Most studies show that a monkey is an ancestor of a human being. Surprisingly, their history is almost 55 million years old. In the early days, it was thought that a monkey had four hands, two in front and two in back. As time passed, people learned that a monkey does not have four hands like a typical human being. Finally, they found that a primate has two hands on the front side of its body, while on the back side, it has two feet. According to popular belief, monkeys are believed to have hands. They use their upper arms like how we use our hands. In addition, some monkey species utilize their hands as legs.
Fingers of a monkey’s hand
Monkeys have a lot of species present on the earth now. According to reports, there are almost 233 species. They are different in size from one another. Most of these species have five fingers on their hands and feet, like humans, but a few have four fingers on their paws and hands. Most species have touch-sensitive pads on each of their fingers and fingernails instead of claws.
Is the hand of a monkey the same as a human being’s?
About 7 million years ago, humans and chimpanzees may have shared an ancestor. Yet today, chimpanzees and humans have pretty different-looking hands. Physically, human fingers are shorter than their thumbs and can touch any position on the fingers. Also, they can easily grip objects by touching their thumbs to any point on their fingers. On the other hand, monkeys have fingers that are significantly longer and thumbs that are much shorter. It makes them ideal for swinging in trees but much less helpful for fine grabbing for many years. However, several experts have recently started to question the notion that the proportions of the human hand significantly changed following the evolutionary separation from monkeys.
Also Read: Weirdest monkeys
Features of a monkey hand
Recently, Yerkes National Primate Research Center researchers examined caged chimpanzees and discovered that most of them utilized their right hands to communicate with one another, such as when extending their arms to greet them. For non-communicative acts like wiping their noses, the animals did not exhibit this hand preference. They also use their hands for other activities like grabbing objects, tree climbing, running, etc. They use their hands to eat something.
Do monkey hands have a firm grip?
In a review of the literature on chimpanzee muscle power, researchers at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix discovered that, on average, chimpanzees’ muscles are 1.5 times more potent than those of humans when performing pulling and leaping exercises. The gripping power of various species of monkeys may differ from each other. The spider monkey can support its entire body weight on its prehensile, or gripping, tail. Each monkey’s tail has a distinct pattern of lines, similar to a fingerprint that aids in the tail’s ability to grasp branches. Among nonhuman primates, great apes and cercopithecine monkeys use precise gripping techniques, such as the traditional “precision grip,” which incorporates the thumb tip and one or more fingertips.
Also Read: Monkey with Down Syndrome
Monkeys have many connections with human beings. A monkey is known as the ancestor of a human being. Like humans, monkeys also have a pair of hands and feet. Their hands have a solid grip. They use their hands in many ways. Their shape is slightly different from human beings, but they primarily work the same. A significant difference is that a human hand consists of a prolonged thumb, but a monkey hand has a small thumb in shape and is on the opposite side of a human. Most species have five fingers. However, a few have four fingers due to their ancestral breeds.
