The evolution and biological correlates of hand preferences in anthropoid primates.

The evolution of human right-handedness has been intensively debated for decades. Manual lateralization patterns in non-human primates have the potential to elucidate evolutionary determinants of human handedness, but restricted species samples and inconsistent methodologies have so far limited comparative phylogenetic studies. By combining original data with published literature reports, we assembled data on hand preferences for standardized object manipulation in 1786 individuals from 38 species of anthropoid primates, including monkeys, apes, and humans.