Citizens of the Stone Age do not often get their due. Popular misconceptions paint them as cave dwellers who invented nothing but the club. The Stone Age
Fossil endocasts record features of brains from the past: size, shape, vasculature, and gyrification. These data, alongside experimental and comparative evidence, are needed to resolve questions about brain energetics, cognitive specializations, and developmental plasticity. Through the application of interdisciplinary techniques to the fossil record, paleoneurology has been leading major innovations. Neuroimaging is shedding light on fossil brain organization and behaviors. Inferences about the development and physiology of the brains of extinct species can be experimentally investigated through brain organoids and transgenic models based on ancient DNA. Phylogenetic comparative methods integrate data across species and associate genotypes to phenotypes, and brains to behaviors. Meanwhile, fossil and archeological discoveries continuously contribute new knowledge. Through cooperation, the scientific community can accelerate knowledge acquisition. Sharing digitized museum collections i
Was a small-brained human relative the world s first gravedigger—and artist? | Science science.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from science.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.