Study Finds Most Kangaroos are Left-Handed
Posted on June 19, 2015
A new study has found that most kangaroos are left handed. They prefer their left hand when performing everyday tasks like eating or grooming. This is different than with humans where right-handedness is more common. The researchers from Saint Petersburg State University in Russia say their study challenges the notion that left or right handedness in mammals is unique to primates.
Yegor Malashichev of Saint Petersburg State University in Russia, says in a statement, "According to a special-assessment scale of handedness adopted for primates, kangaroos pulled down the highest grades. We observed a remarkable consistency in responses across bipedal species in that they all prefer to use the left, not the right, hand."
The researchers say the finding was not expected because kangaroos "lack the same neural circuit that bridges the left and right hemispheres of the brain." Some of the activities kangaroos use their left hands for include grooming the nose, picking a leaf and bending a tree branch.
Malashichev says, "What we observed in reality we did not initially expect. But the more we observed, the more it became obvious that there is something really new and interesting in the wild."
The researchers say the findings should encourage more careful study of the marsupial brain. A research paper on the study was published here in the journal, Cell Biology.
