A study found that the size of the human brain continues to grow larger than the size of our ancestors three million years ago.
The size of the human brain itself is three times larger than the species of relatives of chimps and bonobos (pygmy chimps).
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, analyzed 94 hominin fossils, one of the 'branches' of humans with the genus Homo.
The results show that brain size increases slowly and consistently due to the evolution of populations where large-brained species are becoming known and small-brained species are becoming extinct.
"Brain size is one of the most obvious traits that make us human because it deals with the complexity of culture, language, tool making and all the other things that make us unique," said Andrew Du of the University of Chicago and first author of the study.
He added that earlier hominins had the same brain size as chimpanzees and continued to experience drastic increases.
The researchers compared the skulls of 94 fossil specimens with 13 different species, beginning with the earliest human ancestors emerging.
Two of them are Australopithecus which is a pre-modern species of 3.2 million years ago and Homo erectus that existed 500,000 years ago, when brain size began to overlap with modern humans.
The researchers saw that when the species were counted at the clade level, or the group that descended from the same ancestor, the average brain size gradually increased over a period of three million years.
The size of the human brain itself is three times larger than the species of relatives of chimps and bonobos (pygmy chimps).
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, analyzed 94 hominin fossils, one of the 'branches' of humans with the genus Homo.
The results show that brain size increases slowly and consistently due to the evolution of populations where large-brained species are becoming known and small-brained species are becoming extinct.
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"Brain size is one of the most obvious traits that make us human because it deals with the complexity of culture, language, tool making and all the other things that make us unique," said Andrew Du of the University of Chicago and first author of the study.
He added that earlier hominins had the same brain size as chimpanzees and continued to experience drastic increases.
The researchers compared the skulls of 94 fossil specimens with 13 different species, beginning with the earliest human ancestors emerging.
Two of them are Australopithecus which is a pre-modern species of 3.2 million years ago and Homo erectus that existed 500,000 years ago, when brain size began to overlap with modern humans.
The researchers saw that when the species were counted at the clade level, or the group that descended from the same ancestor, the average brain size gradually increased over a period of three million years.
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| A study found that the size of the human brain continues to grow larger than the size of our ancestors three million years ago. |
The increase is driven by three different factors, mainly due to the evolution of larger brain sizes in the population of individual species. The addition of new species with larger brains and extinction in smaller brained species is also influential.
"Conventional wisdom says that our big brains have evolved because of a series of steps our ancestors are more intelligent. Not surprisingly it turns out the reality is more complex, with no clear relationship between brain size and behavior," says Bernard Wood, Professor at George Washington University and author senior study.
"Conventional wisdom says that our big brains have evolved because of a series of steps our ancestors are more intelligent. Not surprisingly it turns out the reality is more complex, with no clear relationship between brain size and behavior," says Bernard Wood, Professor at George Washington University and author senior study.
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