A strange experiment with cadavers to prove we are still cavemen (the pugilism hypothesis).

A research article recently appeared in The Journal of Experimental Biology — "In vitro strain in human metacarpal bones during striking: testing the pugilism hypothesis of hominin hand evolution."

What they were studying in plain English: University of Utah researchers made a "pendulum-like apparatus" in which they placed cadaver arms, and proceeded to make the arms punch a padded dumbbell with clenched or unclenched fist. The experiment was to test the theory that the human hand evolved its shape so that men could "fistfight over females" (the "pugilism hypothesis"). [Link: http://jeb.biologists.org/content/218/20/3215]

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