

  (Source: Matt Groening/Fox)
Crucial gene controls higher brain growth


I. It's All in the Genes





Rhesus macaque
[Image Source: Mark Snelson]







Human brain activity




Source: Nature Communications

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RE: Religion and science.
By Gurthang on 11/28/2012 12:40:48 PM , Rating: 2
On the question about human level intelligence and why it is so "rare".

It is well known that humans pay a heavy price to have such a large and complex brain. (energy costs, extended dependance on the parents, etc.) This along with the difficulty in even producing such large brained prodgeny likely represents a large hurtle that required just the right conditions for it to develop.

Systems like evolution tend to favor "least cost/change" solutions. So the question becomes what happened at the dawn of hominids that put us on this trajectory? There is no simple answer to that. So I would expect that for a proto-hominid to move from a social but mild tool user to a highly social heavy tool user you would need a push like some large disaster or climate change altering existing habitats, increased competition in the existing habitat, preditory pressure, or some combination there-in.

Now one thing I wonder is why we don't see any pockets of other hominids left, my guess is that none could develop a niche large enough that they could survive "unchanged/challenged" in since each new line only expanded their range.

