In The News: Department of Anthropology
Until now, our brains were thought to be bigger than they are today. They would have gone through a sudden contraction about 3000 years ago. Scientists are now coming back to that.
Did human brains shrink 3,000 years ago, downsizing by an amount equal to around four ping-pong balls?
Humans take a lot of pride in their brains. We like to think we are an intelligent species, and even though size isn't everything, our noggins are some of the largest nature has to offer.
For decades, scientists have heralded the idea that human brains have increased in size over the course of history, evolving in modern humans be much larger than that of our Neanderthal cousins. In October 2021, DeSilva et al., seemingly added more evidence to this hypothesis with a paper that concluded the human brain shrank during the transition to modern urban societies about 3,000 years ago. And while this supported previous literature, the research did establish a new timeline—marking brain decrease as late as the last Ice Age.
Anthropologists believe that brain size has remained dynamic in size. It nearly quadrupled in the six million years since Homo last shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees, but human brains are thought to have decreased in volume since the end of the last Ice Age.
According to the scientific consensus, in the last 6 million years, the size of the human brain increased roughly three times in parallel with the appearance of various new, increasingly complex activities, and then reached its maximum 10-15 thousand years ago, which is considered yesterday in the evolutionary time scale.
The organ's size has actually held steady over the past 300,000 years, according to new research that reassessed data on brain evolution.
The 12th century BC, when humans were forging great empires and developing new forms of written text, did not coincide with an evolutionary reduction in brain size.
Did the 12th century B.C.E. -- a time when humans were forging great empires and developing new forms of written text -- coincide with an evolutionary reduction in brain size? Think again, says a ÐÔÊӽ紫ý-led team of researchers who refute a hypothesis that's growing increasingly popular among the science community.
Last year's study was sharply criticized by a team of scientists from ÐÔÊӽ紫ý, who found many ambiguities in it.
New research has demolished previous theories about evolution, as researchers find that human brains did not shrink 3,000 year ago.
Did the 12th century B.C.E. — a time when humans were forging great empires and developing new forms of written text — coincide with an evolutionary reduction in brain size? Think again, says a ÐÔÊӽ紫ý-led team of researchers who refute a hypothesis that’s growing increasingly popular among the science community.