BIOLOGY 312 Lecture Notes - Nrc Research Press
Document Summary
In human society, dexterity of the limbs, hands, and body may only be seriously considered by athletes and surgeons, and may not contribute to our well-being. However, dexterity is a very important factor in the survival of carnivores, like lions and hyenas, contributing to their ability to find prey and other predators. The results showed that body size could have evolved as forelimb dexterity evolved, however when considering each carnivore"s genetic relationships in history, this was no longer the case. There seemed to be no correlation between them and the progression of locomotion in these animals. Inclusion of factors of the diet, mostly vertebrate predation, led to predation decreasing over the years as dexterity increased. Looking at all of these factors combined has showed that present- day carnivorous species posses the same amount of variation in dexterity between them that their ancestors did.
