I'm all thumbs on this one

[Challah Rajni]

After having an awful lot of fun imagining an alien race, I got into a debate with a friend.

You see, my aliens are known throughout their universe for their super hand (and foot/hand) dexterity. I wanted to make this point clear, so I imagined them having two opposable thumbs on either side of each hand/foot.

My argument is that the extra thumbs will make them that much better at climbing anything, manipulating complicated machinery and grasping things (from tools to instruments to keypads to weapons, to people's heads...). Unlike human hands, theirs would be symmetrical in structure and the fingers would be a lot longer, possibly having four joints.

I've imagined how they would grasp, and while it would be strange (crossing thumbs), I don't see a problem. Though, I don't see them liking a regular keyboard.

My friend argues that these aliens will have major grip problems, and that this is ultimately impractical for survival.

I'm researching primate hands for now, and I keep running into an information brick wall. Any comments from anywhere are welcome. At this point, I'm not fool enough to turn down a helping hand...

 

[Xelah]

On that, I don't have any formal research to give you, however, I can give you 5 minutes with MS paint.



Just adding a second thumb onto the hand does not look to have any practical use without completely redesigning the wrist.

 

[MistingWolf]

The extra thumb sounds a lot like the idea I had with a current Anthro character, who has an extra thumb coming from just above the wrist bone. I had given Pallanoph, a friend of mine from Deviant Art, a drawing I'd attempted for Vapor's handpaw[ found here http://mistingwolf.deviantart.com/art/Handpaws-117421522 ], and she offered to do a sketch, which can be found here: Hand paws for Misting Wolf by *pallanoph on deviantART

I think it's an interesting idea. I can see your aliens with something along these lines [just not exact please], and feet that resemble a primate's.

 

[Challah Rajni]

MistingWolf, those are some beautiful hands! Your artist pal is awesome. Gushing aside, thanks, that really helps me visualize how my aliens' hands are going to work.

Don't worry, my idea is sufficiently different; my challenge to myself was to make them as alien as possible (they're asexual, egg layers, they evolved as the top predators on their world, and I've put in cuttlefish skin characteristics to drive home the point that these guys aren't to be taken lightly), and yet still make them compelling, beautiful characters with a rich culture.

Xelah, heroic effort! Yup that could be awkward on a human hand. The structure does need to be different, and likely not primate. It's not just the wrist, the whole hand has to be restructured. I'm going for symmetry and super long digits.

Thanks to you both, I'm now sending nerve signals to my phantom thumb. Odd...

 

[Sapheron]

Why not give all the digits the ability to oppose? So they have five, or however many fingers, all of which can be used as either fingers or thumbs as the occasion requires?

 

[Toby Frost]

The art for both Harry Harrison's Yilane and Warhammer's Kroot depict both species as having the sort of hands Xelah describes, and they seem to work fine. Though there are tons of ways this could work provided that something fairly dextrous opposes something else. They could have tentacles, even, like HG Wells' Martians. Their own technology doesn't have to be human-compatible, so it could take all sorts of forms in order for the aliens to use it.

 

[Tindal]

Is is your intention to have this hand illustrated? If not, let people's imagination allow them to work out the details - many times the reader can fill in the blanks.

--
Beverly

 

[Nik]

My Convention's Sanku have such double-thumbs. I made the thumbs asymmetrical, with the inner, the equivalent to ours, much heavier and stronger than the near-dew-claw outer.

One could could gut you, the other dissect a flower...