Anatomy, Function, and Evolution of the Primate Hand Musculature

Abstract

The musculature responsible for movement of the hand has been a topic of choice among anatomists, biological anthropologists, clinicians, and other students of the human body. While comparative anatomists have been preoccupied in establishing hand muscle homologies and documenting differences between species, clinical anatomists aimed at uncovering how muscles produce complex movements of the hand. This multidisciplinary perspective using comparative, functional, and even clinical approaches is recurrent in the writings of Frederic Wood Jones and John Napier on the hand musculature. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive background on the hand musculature of primates while preserving this multidisciplinary theme. The chapter has three main sections: (1) summary of the basic organization and homologies of the musculature of the human hand, (2) comparison of major differences in hand musculature between primates and other pentadactyl mammals, and (3) suggestions for areas of future research on the hand musculature of primates. The functional roles of selected hand muscles are briefly presented throughout the chapter.