A Multitude of Hands: My new essay for National Geographic

In the May issue of National Geographic, I contemplate the hand. Human hands are unique and versatile--and yet we are far from the only animals with them. By looking at the variety of hands in nature, we can see some of the most striking evidence of how evolution tinkers in all sorts of unexpected way. Check it out. The print version is accompanied by lovely sketches of a wide range of hands. If you read the story online, you can see an animation of the human hand. And if you have the National Geographic iPad app, you can see videos of other hands, from frogs to aye-ayes. [Image: White -handed gibbon by Ingo Arndt, on Arkive.]