This bone is often the most prone to damage from fast bowlers in cricket, as it is furthest down the bat handle on both left- and right-handers, and as such is in danger of being struck by balls that are pitched short.

This is to receive compressive forces generated by the pad-to-pad opposition between the thumb and the index finger.

In quadrupedal monkeys these facets are oriented slightly differently due to their locomotor behaviour.

[3] In Oreopithecus, a Miocene hominid that became extinct 7 million years ago, the orientation of the facet on the second metacarpal is similar to human conditions — an indication that it had the capability of pad-to-pad precision grip.

[4] This article incorporates text in the public domain from page 228 of the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)