Primate Handedness Data for 41 Species from Phylogenetic Meta-Analysis

2,025 observations across 41 anthropoid primate species, including humans, were analyzed for manual lateralization. The dataset, created by Thomas A. Püschel and last updated in April 2026, combines phylogenetic comparative methods with meta-analysis to test eco-evolutionary hypotheses for handedness. It includes derived metrics like the mean handedness index (MHI) and mean absolute handedness index (MABSHI).

Use Cases

• Testing phylogenetic signal in behavioral traits based on the comparative data across 41 species.
• Modeling the relationship between brain size (endocranial volume) and handedness metrics like MHI and MABSHI.
• Investigating the role of bipedalism (via intermembral index) in the evolution of human-specific lateralization.
• Analyzing the evolutionary trajectory of handedness strength (MABSHI) and direction (MHI) within the hominin lineage.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a meta-analysis covering 2,025 observations, providing a substantial comparative basis.
• Includes derived evolutionary metrics (MHI, MABSHI) and likely associated morphological variables (endocranial volume, intermembral index).
• Released under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license, facilitating reuse and sharing.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for specific modeling tasks.
• The 154.9 KB file size indicates a small, likely aggregated dataset, limiting granular analysis of individual observations.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Combined phylogenetic comparative methods with meta-analysis of existing studies.

Time Range

Temporal coverage of the underlying studies is not specified.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-27 17:33:49; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global, covering anthropoid primate species.