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been performed by great apes, cercopithecine monkeys, and nonhuman primates. This has included the often referenced ‘‘precision grip,’’ which consisted of the use of a few finger tips, and most importantly, the thumb tip. Research and experimen- tation on nonhuman primates and humans has proven that what differentiated the humans from their near and distant primate cousins was that through evolution they acquired the unique ability to apply immense force to manipulate, use, and hold all different average-sized objects in a steady and secure manner between their fingers and the padded portion of their thumbs. This was a significant leap in evolution for humans, in their brain, hand, and tool-use coordination. The precision grip– acquired mode in fossil records, which dates back to over 3.5 million years ago, also shows that it was a feature that only hominids, as future humans, possessed. The hominids of that period are classified as the Australopithecus afarensis. There was no continual evolutionary bond between the Oreopithecus bamboli and the Australopithecus afarensis. This was proven by the discovery of fossils of the Mio- cene ape’s hand bones. The epitome of hand-grasping precision had clearly devel- oped over 5 million years earlier than the Australopithecus afarensis hominids. Gorillas and chimpanzees, on the other hand, despite the clear differences in their body mass and weight the length of their hands in relation to each other, hominids, and humans and their index finger and thumb ratios, have characteristically always been smaller, all sharing short thumbs. They did not then nor now possess the abil- ity of the earlier Australopithecus and Oreopithecus hominids, along with later Homo sapiens’ highly developed manipulative tool-using abilities and increased bipedal capabilities. These, over millions of years, had experienced selective evo- lutionary pressures that enhanced and favored those organs in each of these spe- cies, which in time (especially with humans) helped in the areas of hunting, farming, and harvesting. Therefore, regular evolving bipedality among hominids, and later humans, required the selective evolution of skilled hands. It is with the freeing of the hands and the strengthening of the hominids’ and humans’ lower calves, leg tendons, and muscles that these evolving and diverse species, would in time, be capable of becoming much more mobile in their daily affairs. In time, prior to the eventual arrival of modem humans, Australopithecus, Oreopithecus, and later more specifically, Homo erectus, became much more efficient in upright and sturdy walking. Homo erectus was using fire, manipulating and fine-honing its diverse collection of stone implements. Also, antler horns and other bone material were used for scraping and digging, with various boned appendages and objects used for engraving, sculpting, and stitching clothes. Gradually, they found imagi- native and innovative uses for art forms and designs, as found in archaeological digs, such as ivory animal and human carvings, beads, small and large clay figur- ines, decorated and notched tools, and a diverse range of music devices. But, equally important, they left for further discovery in the next 20,000 years, as emi- nent scholars Louis and Mary Leakey had jubilantly discovered, striking, impos- ing, and brilliant cave paintings (Leakey, 1965). All that, with ever increasing PRO | 3