Dead Arm Punching

Ever wondered why our fist is shaped like it is? Probably not. The following article

will make you overthink why you read Youpaper Science Alert. But, don’t worry,

it is not as bad as you think.

"The idea that aggressive

behavior played a role in the

evolution of the human hand is

controversial," says biology

professor David Carrier, senior

author of a study that discusses

why our fist is shaped the way It

is. "Many skeptics suggest that the human fist is simply a coincidence of natural

selection for improved manual dexterity. That may be true, but if it is a

coincidence, it is unfortunate”, he states in an interview. And, believe it or not,

he actually has a valid point on that matter. He suggests that the hand

proportions that allow the formation of a fist may tell us something important

about our evolutionary history and who we are as a species. Carrier and his

collaborators not only argue that our hands evolved partly for punching but that

the faces of human ancestors evolved to resist punching. What they did now will

not just shock you but also shocked some fellow researchers in the scientific

community; They took the arms of people who shortly passed away. The

experiment's cadaver arms were placed in a pendulum-like apparatus in order

to punch a force-detecting dumbbell with either a buttressed or clenched fist.

The image on the top right side shows from bird’s eye perspective how the

cadaver arms were placed in the pendulum-like device in order punch the

padded dumbbell weight.

In the end, most bones could resist a force of more then 200 pounds. The

experiment showed in detail that the hand is able to withstand enormous force

in a matter of milliseconds, which leads to the assumption that the human hand

has once been shaped for not only manual dexterity but also raw fighting.

Dead Arm Punching [Modell]: Andre Mossman, University of Utah