Re: semilunate carpal

[Mike Taylor <mike@tecc.co.uk>]

> Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2001 11:38:00 -0500
> From: "Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>
>
> As primates, we tend to regard a prehensile manus with an opposable
> thumb as a sort of crowning glory of evolution.  It works for us
> _Homo sapiens_ really well, because our lifestyle depends on a high
> degree of manual dexterity.  I couldn't write this message without
> it, or peel a banana, or work the remote control of my TV (which
> forms a much larger part of my own ecology than it should!)  So when
> a lineage actually reduces the mobility and prehensile ability of
> the manus, it's regarded as a retrograde step.  However, in the
> context of a lineage of consummate predators, it might actually be
> quite advantageous.

Sorry if I am flogging a dead maniraptor here, but I've been catching
up on some old messages and I came across this.  It reminded me of the
case of Ray Reardon, who was an incredibly successful snooker player
-- world champion seven times, if memory serves.  (For anyone who
doesn't know what snooker is (is it played in the USA?) it's similar
in principal to pool, much as rugby is to American So-Called
Football.)

He attributes his success in part to a childhood injury to his right
elbow, which healed badly so that bones fused in a way that restricted
his movement.  The result was that his cueing action was abnormally
clean and straight, since he didn't have the flexibility for
side-to-side movement which hinders most snooker players.

Purely anectodal, and based on a pathology rather than a selected-for
character, but evidence that restrictions on mobility can be helpful!

 _/|_    _______________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor | <mike@miketaylor.org.uk> | www.miketaylor.org.uk
)_v__/\  "Keep an open mind ... but not so open that your brain falls
         out" -- Gerald Coates.