Left Handed Kangaroos?10% of the human population who are left-handed, you are no longer alone. Your
Left Handed Kangaroos?10% of the human population who are left-handed, you are no longer alone. Your ranks have swelled by three marsupials; the Eastern Grey Kangaroo, the Red Kangaroo and the Red-necked Wallaby. This is the first time dominance of a hand (handedness) has been observed outside of primates (particularly humans). These species were found dominantly using their left hand for feeding and grooming.We’ve known handedness appears in some primates for some time; however, the observation of handedness in some marsupials is important as marsupials are a part of a different evolutionary branch to primates. It has previously been acknowledged that convergent evolution occurred between marsupials and placentals, as despite evolving on different continents they primarily evolved to be similar (beyond reproductive methods). However, this new evidence suggests that some species may have instead had parallel evolution. Parallel evolution is where a similar trait is developed (in this case handedness) in species from different branches of the evolutionary tree.It was noted in the paper that handedness was only seen in species that regularly stood on their back legs, using their front legs for tasks. This follows observations seen in primates, where handedness is only observed if the primate has an upright posture.~SAPicture: http://bit.ly/1LnQZHc by BidgeePaper: http://bit.ly/1TzafXR -- source link
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