An interdisciplinary approach to the evolution of grasping and manipulation

This paper is an introduction to a special issue of the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (2019, volume 127: issue 3) focused on an interdisciplinary approach to the evolution of grasping and manipulation in tetrapods. Grasping is associated with pronounced morphological, dietary, social and locomotor differentiation, and this prompts several evolutionary questions, including the following. In primates, was the origin and evolution of grasping associated primarily with feeding or with locomotion and other social behaviours? Are some grasping and manipulative abilities unique to humans? What is the variability in grasping and manipulation among primates? What can we learn from other tetrapods? The special issue addresses some of these questions by exploring the ways in which the anatomy, functional morphology, ontogeny and biomechanics of tetrapods enable their hands to carry out diverse functions, such as locomotion and manipulation. We briefly review the possible origin and evolution of grasping and manipulative abilities in tetrapods and then introduce the ten other contributions to the special issue.