Charles Darwin – ‘the Godfather of evolution’ – had the long pointer finger!
December 11, 2009
CHARLES DARWIN HAD THE LONG FOREFINGER! Charles Darwin’s voyage of the HMS Beagle (1831-1836) is known as the most important journey around the world ever made. For, during that the famous trip Darwin gained knowledge and insights that has changed the perception of human kind about the image of life on Earth dramatically. On September 1, 2009 the “clipper Stad Amsterdam” left on a trip around the world, in the wake of Charles Darwin (1809-1882). During the 2009 journey researchers investigate many aspects of Darwin’s work and life. Evolutionary psychology professor Bram Buunk – who is involved in finger length research – studied Darwin’s finger length! Jealousy in Montevideo: Men and women have different reasons for jealousy, Buunk discovered in the seventies. Men are jealous because they do not want their female fertilized by another man – a genetic cuckoo – and for the dissemination of its genes on to run. Women are jealous because they do not want their husband’s attention spread over several partners, but exclusively focuses on her and her children. Bram Buunk and his colleagues have discovered a link between the susceptibility to become jealousy, and the ratio of the length of index fingers and ring fingers. The story is now more or less known: if the index finger (a.k.a. the ‘pointer finger’ or ‘forefinger’) is relatively longer than the ring finger, the individual, regardless of sexe, has sort of a ‘female character’. Conversely, human males usually have a relatively long ring finger, usually the ring finger is longer than the index finger (while in human females the both fingers often have the same length). The link could be traced back to an evolutionary coincidence. For, the same chemical cocktail during the embryonic development of the brains in the direction of the correct gender sends, plays a role in cutting the fingers of the hand embryonic plate.
Buunk also studied Darwin’s fingers:
“The conclusion is obvious: Charles Darwin was a man with a strong feminine disposition! That may explain a lot: his gentleness, his highly developed social and diplomatic skills, his easy survival during the cooperation with Fitzroy – who was known to be a ‘difficult’ man (likely, a man with a long ring finger), his care for his family, and his concern for the consequences of the publication of his ‘theory of evolution’ on society in general and the welfare of his family in particular.” SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER READING: |


“During a conversation about Buunk’s finger research, we realized that we could apply this theory to Darwin, and sure enough, a few photos, including the one in which he poses with his son William, you can see his hand with a relatively very long forefinger.” 
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August 6, 2010 at 5:08 pm
I have a query rather than a comment. I am interested in using the photo of Charles Darwin (with finger) that appears on your web-page in a book about the Darwins that I am expecting to publish in the UK. I am interested to know if anyone claims any reproduction rights for the picture, which appears on at least a few other websites too, although it is not one of the common photos of Darwin. Can you help, please ?
August 7, 2010 at 11:49 am
Hi Tom,
I don’t know! Maybe you should tryo to contact the people who presented Darwin’s photo at the ‘Big Idea Exhibition’, Natural History Museum, London (if anyone has the rights, the should know it) – see the comment below the picture at my website:
http://www.handresearch.com/news/vpro-beagle-charles-darwin-long-pointer-finger.htm
(Not sure that there no rights involved, despite the man died alsmost 130 years ago, the picture might be a reproduction!)
Good luck & I hope this info is useful for you!
Martijn.