Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Competition Led To Big Human Brain
David Geary, and colleagues, from the University of Missouri have tested 3 theories that have tried to account for the dramatic expansion of the human brain: climate change, ecological demands and social competition, by collecting data from over 100 hominid skulls. They find the greatest support comes for social competition as the prime mover because population density had the greatest effect on skull size. Powerful support for Robin Dunbar's "Social Brain" theory for scaling in brain size throughout the primates and up to Man.
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