- The size of the human brain did not alter 3,000 years ago, or ever, according to a recent article.
- Anthropologist Brian Villmoare of the University of Nevada and chemist Mark Grabowski of Liverpool John Moores University intervened.
- The size of the human brain has remained “remarkably steady over the previous 300,00 years” and has not changed.
The size of the human brain did not alter 3,000 years ago, or ever, according to a recent article published in ‘Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution’, refuting a widely held and popular belief.
In response to an article published by Jerome DeSilva of Dartmouth College and colleagues in 2021, anthropologist Brian Villmoare of the University of Nevada and chemist Mark Grabowski of Liverpool John Moores University have intervened.
According to the 2021 paper, the human brain may have lost up to 150 cubic centimeters of volume during the Iron Age, or roughly the size of a lemon.
According to DeSilva’s team, the brain shrinks as a result of “self-domestication” and a preference for collective over individual thought.
Villmaore said that comparing the brains of sapiens to those of any other species was worthless and meaningless, in contrast to DeSilva’s study which examined 10 million years of evolution, including apes.
The dearth of fossils from other human species was one of the causes. We were described as being an altogether distinct species.
Villmaore reportedly told Haaretz that they had doubts about how DeSilva’s work handled data statistically. Since it was “the most complete,” the no shrinkage study used the same data.
However, their statistical approach and, ultimately, their results, were different.
He explained, “The point was that we need to throw out all this material about human devolution. “It is simply untrue.”
According to their research, the size of the human brain has remained “remarkably steady over the previous 300,00 years” and has not changed as a result of changes in community and agriculture.
The no shrinkage paper responded to DeSilva’s comparison of ant and human societies by pointing out the distinctions between the two and arguing that collective intelligence lowered size in both clades.
In contrast to ants, which are primarily slaves, Villmaore claimed that humans are a competitive species. He said that vertebrae form alliances, are hostile, sociable, and possess larger brains.
He asserted that elephants and rhinos might be compared because the former live in herds while the latter does not.
He said that the elephant brain was six times larger than the rhino’s.
He also identified a different problem. He said that DeSilva connected the agricultural revolution to the shrinking and claimed that it happened internationally.
The timing of this revolution would have varied depending on where on the planet it occurred. This does not account for all global brain shrinkage in people.
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