From an article in The Guardian a few days ago: - "Early humans may have had help in mastering tools and walking upright from a chunk of DNA that scientists previously wrote off as junk, according to a study [by researchers at Yale and the Medical Research Council's human genetics unit]. The section of DNA - HACNS1 - is thought to have triggered off the development of hands and feet." - They "analysed DNA from macaques, chimpanzees and humans and identified sequences that appeared similar in all three, suggesting they had survived through history and so likely played a role in growth and development."