The human brain grew as a result of the extinction of large animals: new paper
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Re: The human brain grew as a result of the extinction of large animals: new paper
#2You don't chase down most little critters, you bait and trap. That does require being less of a dummy.
Re: The human brain grew as a result of the extinction of large animals: new paper
#3You don't chase down most little critters, you bait and trap. That does require being less of a dummy.
Interesting. Wonder if this conflicts with the idea that human brains grew as a result of eating more meat. That instead human brains grew due to evolutionary need of harder to catch meat sources.
Re: The human brain grew as a result of the extinction of large animals: new paper
#4You don't chase down most little critters, you bait and trap. That does require being less of a dummy.
Interesting. Wonder if this conflicts with the idea that human brains grew as a result of eating more meat. That instead human brains grew due to evolutionary need of harder to catch meat sources.
Not directly related, but I find myself to be mentally sharper when hungry, if on edge a little.
Re: The human brain grew as a result of the extinction of large animals: new paper
#5I believe that the series of extinctions that cleared the way for (and perhaps necessitated) the rise of intelligence in apes was the great filter.
I can't ignore global warming as another possible filter, but I think the big one is behind us.
Re: The human brain grew as a result of the extinction of large animals: new paper
#6Ok - so how does this account for the hunter gatherer cultures in North America and Africa into modern times? Bison do not count as small game.
Also, if you kill an elephant how much of that beast can you (and all your tribe) hope to eat?
I'm not even sure if this is a causal inversion or just a co-incidence; humans may well have had nothing to do with big game until they were anatomically modern. Where is the evidence that Little Foot and Lucy killed anything bigger than a mouse?
Re: The human brain grew as a result of the extinction of large animals: new paper
#7You don't chase down most little critters, you bait and trap. That does require being less of a dummy.
> You don't chase down most little critters, you bait and trap
The switch, from large to small, seems critical. Hunting big game requires cooperation and communication. That tooling gets supercharged when it has to domain switch. (Counterfactual: forcing lions to sustain themselves on rabbits will probably produce prides of dead lions.)
Re: The human brain grew as a result of the extinction of large animals: new paper
#8You don't chase down most little critters, you bait and trap. That does require being less of a dummy.
Interesting. Wonder if this conflicts with the idea that human brains grew as a result of eating more meat. That instead human brains grew due to evolutionary need of harder to catch meat sources.
As protohumans and humans invaded lands, they likely extincted megafauna and flora calorie and protein sources that were easiest to access. This then likely required more mental effort and creativity to solve food security problems with hunting and gardening.
Re: The human brain grew as a result of the extinction of large animals: new paper
#9Interestingly in the intro to "Animals in Translation" Temple Grandin discusses the fact that is highly possible that in fact human brain size decreased with the domestication of animals (she discusses dogs specifically who she also posits we may have helped us develop social relationships with eachother).
Re: The human brain grew as a result of the extinction of large animals: new paper
#10I believe that the series of extinctions that cleared the way for (and perhaps necessitated) the rise of intelligence in apes was the great filter . I can't ignore global warming as another possible filter, but I think the big one is behind us.
I fear the collapse that will accompany the Holocene Extinction is unfortunately ahead of us.