ANT-1430 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Brain Size, Acheulean, Taung Child
Document Summary
Obstetrical dilemma - human offspring are born less developed compared to other primates because it"s the only way they"re small enough to fit. Brain size: 500 - 650 cc (on par with australopithecines) Associated with the first stone tools (olduwan tools) Acheulean tools - advanced stone tool technology, attempting to create a specific tool by hitting stone on stone multiple times. Human brain size has tripled during the past 4 my. How to study brains in human evolution. Fossil record - endocasts (natural and reconstructed) Prefrontal cortex is much larger than other mammals. The brain of ape neonates increases by a factor of 2 over their lifetimes. The human brain increases by a factor of 3. Human brains are wayyy bigger than they should be for a primate our size. High cost of caring for immature babies likely has a major impact on the evolution of early humans.
