ArticleScience advances2020
When ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny: Fixed neurodevelopmental sequence of manipulative skills among primates.
Article in Science advances, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- Reading hominin life history in fossil bones and teeth: methods to test hypotheses regarding its evolution.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Human-specific features of the cerebellum and ZP2-regulated synapse development.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Infant manipulation complexity trajectories as predictors of language outcomes at 2 years of age.Infant behavior & development · 2025Article
- Human dexterity and brains evolved hand in hand.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Wild and zoo-housed orangutans differ in how they explore objects.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Protracted development of stick tool use skills extends into adulthood in wild western chimpanzees.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Lessons for Theory from Scientific Domains Where Evidence is Sparse or Indirect.Computational brain & behavior · 2024Article
- Extended parental provisioning and variation in vertebrate brain sizes.PLoS biology · 2023Article
- An evidence-based critical review of the mind-brain identity theory.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Tool mastering today - an interdisciplinary perspective.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Review
- Free hand hitting of stone-like objects in wild gorillas.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Why big brains? A comparison of models for both primate and carnivore brain size evolution.PloS one · 2021Article
- Manipulation complexity in infants.Infant and child developmentArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Neural development is highly conserved across distantly related species of different brain sizes. Here, we show that the development of manipulative complexity is equally cumulative across 36 primate species and also that its ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. Furthermore, larger-brained species reach their adult skill levels later than smaller-brained ones, largely because they start later with the simplest techniques. These findings demonstrate that these motor behaviors are not modular and that their slow development may constrain their evolution. Complex foraging techniques therefore critically require a slow life history with low mortality, which explains the limited taxonomic distribution of flexible tool use and the unique elaboration of human technology.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.