Chimpanzees Shed New Light on Hand Preference

Posted by CowboyNeal on Monday December 6, 2004 @10:44PM from the southpaw-monkeys dept.

An anonymous reader writes "'Language skills are associated with the left side of the brain, and many scientists have said early humans developed a preference for their right hands when they acquired speech,' but Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center has a new study that links hand preference to the motor skills area of the brain rather than the language part of the brain. 'That means lefties have probably been around much longer than believed -- at least 5 million years, when scientists say humans and apes branched on the primate family tree. And evolution has purposely kept them.'"

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... evolution has purposely kept them ... by andorsch · 2004-12-06 22:47 · Score: 5, Insightful

why? evolution is not a process of "optimisation" it is a selection process. Those who are "good enough" survive.
Obviously there is no disadvantage for being left handed, why should there be a selection against it?
1. Re:... evolution has purposely kept them ... by YouHaveSnail · 2004-12-07 01:56 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  And evolution has purposely kept them.
  
  I have a big problem with the word "purposely." Evolution does not do anything "purposely," or with intention. Natural selection is a process that applies to all things that reproduce, whether it's an ape or a computer virus, just as gravity applies to all things that have mass.