When did our brain become modern ?
08-04-2021
In a study published in Science, an international team of researchers led by the University of Zurich, in collaboration with the ESRF, has been able to answer this question using computed tomography to examine the brain cases of Homo fossils that lived in Africa and Asia between two and one million years ago.
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The human brain as we know it today is relatively young. It evolved about 1.7 million years ago when the culture of stone tools in Africa became increasingly complex. A short time later, the new Homo populations spread to Southeast Asia, researchers from the University of Zurich have now shown using computed tomography analyses of fossilized skulls.
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Apr. 8, 2021
We humans take vast pride in our brain, not that it’s helped us understand it. Now a new report in Science reveals that the unique structures of the human brain evolved later than thought – certainly after our species began venturing out of Africa 2 million years ago.
Contrasting our fond imaginings, the modern structure of the frontal cortex where we do our advanced-human things such as language hasn’t been with us since our evolution began after all.
We know this because it turns out that the first members of the Homo line to leave Africa – the diminutive primitive specimens found at Dmanisi, Georgia, dating to 1.8 million years ago – had frontal lobe structures like great apes, not like humans, according to a new study published in Science by Marcia Ponce de León of the University of Zurich and colleagues.
Homo erectus skulls found in Dmanisi, Georgia. Paul Tafforeau/ESRF
Our earliest ancestors weren’t as brainy as we thought, fossil skulls suggest
Apr. 8, 2021 , 2:00 PM
Pinpointing when our ancient ancestors evolved humanlike brains is a frustratingly difficult puzzle. Brains almost never fossilize, so researchers must scrutinize impressions in the skull left behind by the brain’s grooves, folds, and bulges. A new analysis of such imprints from five skulls suggests our genus,
Homo, developed complex language and advanced toolmaking hundreds of thousands of years later than previously thought. Other researchers disagree with that interpretation, but say the study still sheds much-needed light on brain structures in our genus’ earliest days.
Date Time
Modern Human Brain Originated in Africa Around 1.7 Million Years Ago
The human brain as we know it today is relatively young. It evolved about 1.7 million years ago when the culture of stone tools in Africa became increasingly complex. A short time later, the new Homo populations spread to Southeast Asia, researchers from the University of Zurich have now shown using computed tomography analyses of fossilized skulls.
Schädel des frühen Homo aus Georgien mit einem affenähnlichen (links) und aus Indonesien mit einem menschenähnlichen Gehirn (rechts). (Bild: M. Ponce de León und Ch. Zollikofer, UZH)
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