Getting a Grip on Human Origins

While much of the world focused on the newly discovered species H. naledi, evolutionary researchers presented another landmark study claiming that chimpanzee hands are more advanced than human hands.

The claim flips on its head the idea that human ancestors evolved advanced hands after leaving apes in the trees. When the authors of the Nature Communications study tried to trace trends in hand development across evolutionary history, they discovered a “complex pattern” that made it impossible. Every type of hand is complex and suited to different needs.

In fact, human hands—modern and Neanderthal—are uniquely designed to do things ape hands cannot do. And vice versa. The new study confirmed that each ape—living and extinct—has hand proportions suited to different lifestyles. That is what we would expect from a God who specifically designed every kind of hand from the beginning.