3-fingered humans

[sally-anne]

I remember seeing an article some time ago about the population in an African village who have evolved having two fingers and a thumb on each hand. Was this a fact or a hoax.

[dawkins]

well now sally anne, you could be referring to the evolution of the famous 3 finger Scruggs style picking of the Banjo, but that was more blue grass than serengeti

[surreyman]

There is a medical condition called ectrodactyly (a.k.a lobster claw syndrome) which fits the description you have given. It also affects the feet as well as the hands.

[dawkins]

now feeling a bit silly:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadoma

However, you will see from the links that it is not the whole village or tribe but a few individuals in the community. Its a genetically inherited trait so no wonder that a few related individuals have it. Arguments exist that it offers some advantage to these individuals in climbing but this has not been properly examined.

[sally-anne]

Thanks Surreyman and Dawkins, I'd have preferred your first answer. Thanks for the link. The photograph reminded me that the fascinating article was in the Sunday Times about 10 years ago.

[Peter Pedant]

sounds like Lobster Claw hands

X rays may show two finnger bones in each claw besides the thumb

Surprisingly functional

as for the three fingered scruggy-wuggies of the Serengeti, I am not sure....

[Peter Pedant]

Hey the wiki article is really really good.

why do these people persist and not just die out ? we are told that tree cliimbing may be better in the Vadoma, in other words that is the Darwinian advantage, however the next article goes on to discuss the Founder Effect - which is when there is something that is just catastrophic - like Tay Sacks disease or Porphyria in SOuth Africa or Ellis van Crefeld syndrome in aborigines, which stillhangs around even so it obvioulsy gives no advantage at all.

and one of the reasons given is....if your population is less than ten to the five, the genetics of large numbers may not apply

thank you thank you

tracking down these articles is very hard....and along term suck