Abstract
Some primates, including chimpanzees, throw objects occasionally1,2, but only humans regularly throw projectiles with high speed and accuracy. Darwin noted that the unique throwing abilities of humans, which were made possible when bipedalism emancipated the arms, enabled foragers to hunt effectively using projectiles3. However, there has been little consideration of the evolution of throwing in the years since Darwin made his observations, in part because of a lack of evidence of when, how and why hominins evolved the ability to generate high-speed throws4,5,6,7,8. Here we use experimental studies of humans throwing projectiles to show that our throwing capabilities largely result from several derived anatomical features that enable elastic energy storage and release at the shoulder. These features first appear together approximately 2 million years ago in the species Homo erectus. Taking into consideration archaeological evidence suggesting that hunting activity intensified around this time9, we conclude that selection for throwing as a means to hunt probably had an important role in the evolution of the genus Homo.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Goodall, J. The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior (Harvard Univ. Press, 1986)
Westergaard, G. C., Liv, C., Haynie, M. K. & Suomi, S. J. A comparative study of aimed throwing by monkeys and humans. Neuropsychologia 38, 1511–1517 (2000)
Darwin, C. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (John Murray, 1871)
Churchill, S. E. & Rhodes, J. A. in The Evolution of Hominin Diets: Integrating Approaches to the Study of Paleolithic Subsistence (eds Hublin, J. J. & Richards, M. P. ) 201–210 (Springer, 2009)
Larson, S. G. Evolutionary transformation of the hominin shoulder. Evol. Anthropol. 16, 172–187 (2007)
Calvin, W. H. The Throwing Madonna: Essays on the Brain (Bantam, 1983)
Fifer, F. C. The adoption of bipedalism by the hominids: a new hypothesis. Hum. Evol. 2, 135–147 (1987)
Bingham, P. M. Human evolution and human history: a complete theory. Evol. Anthropol. 9, 248–257 (2000)
Stanford, C. B. & Bunn, H. T. in Human Evolution Series (eds Ciochon, R. L. & Wood, B. ) (Oxford Univ. Press, 2001)
Shea, J. J. The origins of lithic projectile point technology: evidence from Africa, the Levant, and Europe. J. Archaeol. Sci. 33, 823–846 (2006)
Hirashima, M., Kadota, H., Sakurai, S., Kudo, K. & Ohtsuki, T. Sequential muscle activity and its functional role in the upper extremity and trunk during overarm throwing. J. Sports Sci. 20, 301–310 (2002)
Fleisig, G. S., Andrews, J. R., Dillman, C. J. & Escamilla, R. F. Kinetics of baseball pitching with implications about injury mechanisms. Am. J. Sports Med. 23, 233–239 (1995)
Pappas, A. M., Zawacki, R. M. & Sullivan, T. J. Biomechanics of baseball pitching. A preliminary report. Am. J. Sports Med. 13, 216–222 (1985)
Dillman, C. J., Fleisig, G. S. & Andrews, J. R. Biomechanics of pitching with emphasis upon shoulder kinematics. J. Orthop. Sports Phys. Ther. 18, 402–408 (1993)
Hirashima, M., Kudo, K., Watarai, K. & Ohtsuki, T. Control of 3D limb dynamics in unconstrained overarm throws of different speeds performed by skilled baseball players. J. Neurophysiol. 97, 680–691 (2007)
DiGiovine, N. M., Jobe, F. W., Pink, M. & Perry, J. An electromyography analysis of the upper extremity in pitching. J. Shoulder Elbow Surg. 1, 15–25 (1992)
Gowan, I. D., Jobe, F. W., Tibone, J. E., Perry, J. & Moynes, D. R. A comparative electromyographic analysis of the shoulder during pitching: professional versus amateur pitchers. Am. J. Sports Med. 15, 586–590 (1987)
Astley, H. C. & Roberts, T. J. Evidence for a vertebrate catapult: elastic energy storage in the plantaris tendon during frog jumping. Biol. Lett. 8, 386–389 (2012)
Patek, S. N., Nowroozi, B. N., Baio, J. E., Caldwell, R. L. & Summers, A. P. Linkage mechanics and power amplification of the mantis shrimp's strike. J. Exp. Biol. 210, 3677–3688 (2007)
Bramble, D. M. & Lieberman, D. E. Endurance running and the evolution of Homo. Nature 432, 345–352 (2004)
Osbahr, D. C., Cannon, D. L. & Speer, K. P. Retroversion of the humerus in the throwing shoulder of college baseball pitchers. Am. J. Sports Med. 30, 347–353 (2002)
Reagan, K. M. et al. Humeral retroversion and its relationship to glenohumeral rotation in the shoulder of college baseball players. Am. J. Sports Med. 30, 354–360 (2002)
Bennett, M. B., Ker, R. F., Dimery, N. J. & Alexander, R. M. Mechanical properties of various mammalian tendons. J. Zool. 209, 537–548 (1986)
Werner, S. L., Fleisig, G. S., Dillman, C. J. & Andrews, J. R. Biomechanics of the elbow during baseball pitching. J. Orthop. Sports Phys. Ther. 17, 274–278 (1993)
Pieper, H. G. Humeral torsion in the throwing arm of handball players. Am. J. Sports Med. 26, 247–253 (1998)
Cowgill, L. W. Humeral torsion revisited: a functional and ontogenetic model for populational variation. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 134, 472–480 (2007)
Haile-Selassie, Y. et al. An early Australopithecus afarensis postcranium from Woranso-Mille, Ethiopia. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 12121–12126 (2010)
Walker, A. & Leakey, R. E. The Nariokotome Homo erectus Skeleton (Harvard Univ. Press, 1993)
Richmond, B. G., Begun, D. R. & Strait, D. S. Origin of human bipedalism: the knuckle-walking hypothesis revisited. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 44 (Suppl.). 70–105 (2001)
Snyder, S. J., Karzel, R. P., Del Pizzo, W., Ferkel, R. D. & Friedman, M. J. SLAP lesions of the shoulder. Arthroscopy 6, 274–279 (1990)
Roach, N. T., Lieberman, D. E., Gill, T. J., IV, W. E. & Gill, T. J. III. The effect of humeral torsion on rotational range of motion in the shoulder and throwing performance. J. Anat. 220, 293–301 (2012)
Winter, D. A. Biomechanics and Motor Control of Human Movement 2nd edn (Wiley-Interscience, 1990)
Dempster, W. T. Space Requirements for the Seated Operator (Wright Air Development Center, 1955)
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Wyss Institute, L. Stirling, A. Biewener, R. Wrangham, S. Larson, B. Roach, L. Meszoly, A. Lobell and many undergraduate research assistants for their feedback, help and support. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation (BCS-0961943 to N.T.R. and D.E.L.), the American School for Prehistoric Research (to N.T.R. and D.E.L.) and the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance (500158/Z/09/Z to M.V.).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
N.T.R. and D.E.L. designed the study and wrote the paper. N.T.R. collected and analysed the data with help from D.E.L., M.V. and M.J.R. All authors helped to edit the paper.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
This file contains Supplementary Notes 1-23, Supplementary Figures 1-8, Supplementary Tables 1-6 and Supplementary References. (PDF 1230 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Roach, N., Venkadesan, M., Rainbow, M. et al. Elastic energy storage in the shoulder and the evolution of high-speed throwing in Homo . Nature 498, 483–486 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12267
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12267
This article is cited by
-
Human-specific genetics: new tools to explore the molecular and cellular basis of human evolution
Nature Reviews Genetics (2023)
-
Reassessing the Interpretative Potential of Ethnographic Collections for Early Hunting Technologies
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory (2023)
-
Free hand hitting of stone-like objects in wild gorillas
Scientific Reports (2022)
-
Current concepts in the diagnosis and treatment of adhesive capsulitis: role of diagnostic imaging and ultrasound-guided interventional procedures
La radiologia medica (2022)
-
Quantifizierung der Belastungen des Muskel-Band-Apparats im Schultergelenk von Speerwerfern
Obere Extremität (2022)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.