According to a new research, human hands could be more primitive than hands of chimpanzees that are our closest primate ancestors. The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications. Researchers found in the study that human hand proportions have not changed much from those of our common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans, however the hands of chimpanzees and orangutans have changed to a certain extent.

According to Kurtis Hiatt, a spokesperson for The George Washington University, it has been concluded from the study that the structure of the human hand at present is mainly primitive in nature in opposition to what some people think.

The study was led by Sergio Almécija, a scientist in the university’s Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, and was co-authored by William Jungers and Jeroen Smaers. Both of them are researchers at Stony Brook University, where the study was conducted.

The researchers reached the conclusion after studying the hands of humans, orangutans and chimpanzees. They also studied the remains of hands for prehistoric apes such as Proconsul heseloni and the hands of human ancestors, like Australopithecus sediba and Ardipithecus ramidus. It has been found by Almécija and his team that human hands at present are almost similar to those of our early human ancestors.

According to Hiatt, “Human hands are marked by a relatively long thumb when compared to the length of their four other fingers — a trait that is often cited as one of the reasons for the success of our species because it facilitates a ‘pad-to-pad precision grip”.