--- title: "The Panda's Thumb: quarantine" description: "The one quotation considered for the panda's thumb article and held back: its wording as it circulates, the source it is claimed to come from, what was tried, what was found, and what document would settle it." theme: common/themes/berean2/theme.php --- # Quarantine: the quotation held back This page is written for the next researcher. Rejecting a quotation from publication and erasing it from the record are different decisions; this page is the record. ## UNVERIFIABLE: Endo and colleagues 1999, "much more refined grasping mechanism" **Wording as it circulates:** "We have shown that the hand of the giant panda has a much more refined grasping mechanism than has been suggested in previous morphological models." **Claimed source:** Hideki Endo, Daishiro Yamagiwa, Yoshihiro Hayashi, Hiroshi Koie, Yoshiki Yamaya and Junpei Kimura, "Role of the giant panda's 'pseudo-thumb'," *Nature* 397:309–310, 1999, doi:10.1038/16830. **Who quotes it:** - John Woodmorappe, *Journal of Creation* 13(1):45–48, 1999, section "Correct functions," inside a longer block quotation with ellipses, citing the *Nature* letter. (`sources/web/woodmorappe-1999_panda-thumbs-its-nose-gould.html`) - David Catchpoole, *Creation* 23(2):28–32, 2001, box "Pandas thumb their nose at evolution," as "the hand of the giant panda has a much more refined grasping mechanism than has been suggested in previous morphological models." (`sources/web/catchpoole-2001_bamboozling-panda.html`) - Stephen Dilley, *Religions* 14:1006, 2023, p. 11, giving the locator "Endo et al. 1999, p. 310." (`sources/papers/dilley-2023_god-gould-pandas-thumb.pdf`) - Eric's notes, `/home/share/notes/eric/research/biology/bad design.md` line 578, from the old nature.com abstract URL, marked "haven't read." - The parent article, `html/unpublished-ai/vestigial-structures/index.md`, footnote `endo-1999:pincer`, which presents it as part of the abstract. **What was tried (2026-09-27):** 1. The library copy of the Nature landing page, `sources/web/endo-1999_role-of-giant-panda-pseudo-thumb-abstract.html`: the word "refined" does not occur in it. 2. The 2016 Wayback capture of the old abstract page, `http://web.archive.org/web/20160701021929id_/http://www.nature.com:80/nature/journal/v397/n6717/abs/397309a0.html`: the abstract ends "enabling the panda to manipulate objects with great dexterity." and does not contain the sentence. 3. `https://www.nature.com/articles/16830.pdf` with a browser user agent: returns the HTML paywall, not the PDF. 4. Web search for the exact phrase: no copy of the letter found. 5. Endo and colleagues' open *Journal of Anatomy* papers of 1996, 1999 and 2001 (PMC): none contains the sentence. The 1999 paper has the similar, verified line "In this refined system, the giant panda is equipped with the virtual but functional opposability between the phalanges and the double pincers" (p. 299), which the article uses instead. **What was found:** three independent writers give the same wording, and Dilley places it on p. 310, the letter's second page. It is very probably genuine body text from the letter. It is not abstract text, so the parent article's footnote misdescribes its location. **What would settle it:** a copy of the two-page *Nature* letter (397:309–310), through a library subscription, a JSTOR read if JSTOR holds it, or an interlibrary request.