几种代表性非人灵长类动物利手性的初步观察

A Preliminary Investigation into Handedness of Several Typical Non-Human Primates

人类利手性的起源仍然是一个未解之谜,系最新拟定的125个待解决的Science前沿问题之一。对于这一问题,能否从非人灵长类动物的前肢行为中探寻答案?本文以长沙生态动物园和广州动物园圈养的几种代表性的灵长类动物作为观察对象,就其利手性进行比较研究,结果表明:① 灵长类动物的显著利手性与其和人类亲缘关系的远近没有直接联系;② 在四肢行走的灵长类动物中,虽然存在微弱的利手性右偏好,但并没有群体显著性的利手性偏好,种群内的个体皆为混合利手;③ 白颊长臂猿(Nomascus leucogenys)存在特殊的利手性偏好,其移动行为与非移动行为的利手性偏好相反,这可能与其在树上荡行的习惯化行为有关。基于观察数据,本文认为,人类显著利手性偏好产生的时间可能早于人类从树上生活转移到地面生活的时间,人类的远祖在树上生活时便像长臂猿那样产生了显著的利手性偏好,人类的显著利手性偏好与直立行走可能存在密切的关系。

The origin of human handedness remains an unsolved mystery, which is listed as one of the 125 newest frontier scientific issues in Science. Could the answer be found in the forelimb behaviors of non-human primates? In this paper, the handedness of several typical primates from Changsha Ecological Zoo and Guangzhou Zoo was investigated, and the main results were as follows: 1) Significant handedness inprimates was not directly related to how close they were to humans. 2) Among the primates species that walked by arms and legs, there was no significant group handedness preference as well as all of individuals in this group were ambiguous handedness, although there existed a weak right-handedness preference. 3) There was a special handedness preference in White-cheeked Gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys), and its locomotive behaviors were opposite to non-locomotive behaviors in handedness preference, which might be related to its habituation of swinging in trees. Based on the observed data, we speculated that the emergence of significant handedness preference in Human might be earlier than the time when Human life were from tree to ground. The ancestors of Human developed significant handedness preference like gibbons when living in trees, and there might exist a close relationship between Human’s upright walking and handedness preference.