Sex differences in throwing: monkeys having a fling
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Updated: Oct 9, 2026

Behavioral Assessment of Manual Dexterity in Non-Human Primates
Published on: November 11, 2011
1Dept of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, BC, V5A 1S6.\, Burnaby, Canada
Abstract:
Fast and accurate throwing was undoubtedly important to ancestral hominids, and was subject to sexual-selection pressures that generated a male advantage in throwing accuracy that persists in modern humans. The balance of evidence, including that from a recent comparative study of throwing in humans and capuchin monkeys, suggests that high-performance throwing involves unique adaptations in the domains of spatial targeting, precision timing, and multi-joint motor control.
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