When it comes to climbing and grasping objects, it’s easy to see how being thumbless might be a hindrance. While true thumbs are specialised finger bones, some animals have evolved thumbs from their wrist bones. These are called pseudo-thumbs and are essentially a sixth digit.
Giant pandas evolved pseudo-thumbs to accompany their thumbless, five-fingered paws when they made the switch from meat-eating to a largely plant-based diet. It is thought that pseudo-thumbs help giant pandas hold bamboo.
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Red pandas, which are more closely related to raccoons than to giant pandas, independently evolved pseudo-thumbs, initially to help them climb. Aye-ayes, a species of lemur that is native to Madagascar, evolved pseudo-thumbs for the same reason.
The evolution of thumbs and pseudo-thumbs is an example of convergent evolution. This is when different species, faced with similar environmental challenges, independently evolve similar ways to solve those challenges – with another example being the evolution of wings in birds and bats.
The evolution of all these thumbs is one of the most striking examples of convergent evolution in the natural world, and the fact that they have evolved in multiple species just goes to show how handy thumbs really are.
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Top image: giant panda using its pseudo thumb. Credit: Getty
