amnhnyc:NEW RESEARCH suggests that humans became the large-brained, large-bodied animals we are toda
amnhnyc:NEW RESEARCH suggests that humans became the large-brained, large-bodied animals we are today because of natural selection to increase brain size. The work, published in the journal Current Anthropology, contradicts previous models that treat brain size and body size as independent traits responding to separate evolutionary pressures.Instead, the study shows for the first time that brain size and body size are genetically linked, and that selection to increase brain size will “pull along” body size, a phenomenon that may have played a key role in the increase in both traits that occurred near the origins of modern humans and other species in the genus Homo.“Over the last four million years, brain size and body size increased substantially in our human ancestors,” said paper author Mark Grabowski, a James Arthur postdoctoral fellow in the Museum’s Division of Anthropology. “This observation has led to numerous hypotheses attempting to explain why observed changes occurred, but these typically make the assumption that brain- and body-size evolution are the products of separate natural selection forces.”Read the full story on the Museum blog. -- source link
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