Wonder spawned in: 2010ish
Wondered into being by: Chris Bliss (what a great name!)
Wonderspan: 5 min
To experience this wonder at its best: Click 'full screen' and make sure you can hear the sound.
So, my history teacher, the wonderfully named Ted Trillo, made a quite a fuss of his opposable thumbs. As he told us (most weeks, in fact), a chimpanzee can touch his thumb to his first two fingers, whereas we humans get to touch the last two as well. This fact left us pretty cold at the time, but, as Ted went on to explain in an increasingly agitated state of excitement, for our ancestors this fingerly feat meant they could fashion tools. In turn, that meant they could smash an animal's bone to reach the marrow inside and so enjoy the most nutritious part of any mammal. Early humans could then migrate from place to place and the rest is literally history.
We also have our clever thumbs to thank for being able, unlike gorillas, cows and jellyfish, to answer the phone when it rings, play whist with Grandma before she goes to bed, complain in writing to First Great Western, switch off the television or blow it up... and this:
One of the YouTube comments: 'This guy deserves something.. but I don't really know what.'
Thanks to Leslie L for suggesting this week's wonder.
Extra...
Another marvellous pair of opposable thumbs belongs to Avner, who uses them to keep his hat on:
Need more thumbspeed? Here's Hiroyuki Suzuki:
One viewer on YouTube commented: ‘The speed of light just called. He wants to be first again.’ But Hiroyuki didn't win the competition. Nope! Marcus Koh did:
I hope his t-shirt is ironic but it's hard to tell.
More juggling? Alright then! Here's Anthony Gatto freshly arrived from another planet performing at the Cirque du Soleil - you'll see that in this routine he also uses an opposable head, which we earthlings don't have. Breathe in because you're going to need to gasp:
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