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Last Updated: Friday, 13 February, 2004, 13:54 GMT
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Left-handedness common in Ice Age
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By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor

SEE ALSO:

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The sinister tale of left handers
18 Jan 02 | Health

The fraction of left-handed
people today is about thesame as it was during theIce Age, according to datafrom prehistoric handprints.
They were found in caves
painted during the Upper
Palaeolithic period, between
30,000 and 10,000 years ago.

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Biology LettersUniversité Montpellier
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A right-hand print signifys lefthandedness

Left-handedness may haveconferred prehistoric man advantages, such as in combat, say
the researchers.
The research is published in the February issue of the journal
Biology Letters.

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Evolutionary advantages
When Stone Age man produced their remarkable cave
paintings they often left handprints on the walls produced byblowing pigments from one hand through a tube held by theother hand.
Charlotte Faurie and Michel Raymond at the University ofMontpellier, France, deduced the prehistoric cave painters'
handedness by spraying paint against cave walls to see whichhand they pressed against the wall, and therefore did not use
for drawing.
Looking at 507 handprints from 26 caves in France and Spain,
they deduced that 23% of them were right-handed, whichindicated that they were made by left-handers.
In the general population today about 12% are left-handed,though populations vary considerably, between 3 and 30%.
Because handedness has a genetic component the researchers
wondered why the proportion of left-handers should haveremained so constant over 30,000 years - the age of the oldest
cave studied.
They suggest that because left-handedness is relatively rare it
provides certain advantages over those who are right-handed,such as in solo and group fighting.
The researchers say their findings add to the evidence that theevolutionary forces that cause right- and left-handedness are
independent of culture.

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