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Brain Size Growth and Life History in Human Evolution

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Abstract

Increases in endocranial volume (a measure of brain size) play a major role in human evolution. Despite the importance of brain size increase, the developmental bases of human brain size evolution remain poorly characterized. Comparative analyses of endocranial volume size growth illustrate that distinctions between humans and other primates are consequences of differences in rates of brain size growth, with little evidence for differences in growth duration. Evaluation of available juvenile fossils shows that earliest hominins do not differ perceptibly from chimpanzees (Pan). However, rapid and human-like early brain growth apparently characterized Homo erectus at about 1 Ma before present. Neandertals show patterns of brain growth consistent with modern humans during infancy, but reach larger sizes than modern humans as a result of differences in later growth. Growth analyses reveal commonalities in patterns of early brain size growth during the last million years human evolution, despite major increases in adult size. This result implies consistency across hominins in terms of maternal metabolic costs of infancy. Continued size growth past infancy in Neandertals and modern humans, when compared to earlier hominins, may have cognitive implications. Differences between Neandertals and modern humans are implied, but difficult to define with certainty.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Drs. Phillipp Mitteroecker and Phillipp Gunz for organizing the stimulating workshop, “Human Evo-Devo: The Role of Development in Human Evolution” at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (Altenberg, Austria). Other conference participants provided valuable advice and feedback on the research. Two anonymous reviewers provided valuable insights with skill, patience, and professionalism.

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  1. Department of Anthropology, Institute for Genomic Biology, College of Medicine, University of Illinois, 109 Davenport Hall, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Steven R. Leigh

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Leigh, S.R. Brain Size Growth and Life History in Human Evolution. Evol Biol 39, 587–599 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-012-9168-5

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