Points from Foregoing Letters

Abstract

THE movable ‘thumb’ of the giant panda, which it uses for the purpose of grasping bamboo shoots, is not a true first digit, writes Prof. F. Wood Jones. The actual thumb of the panda, as of all animals which use all four limbs for supporting the body on the ground, has lost its movability and the animal has developed a new movable digit, rather than reverse its structural evolution (Dollo's law).