Shocking research shows that: 3,000 years ago, the human brain shrank

Data from 985 human fossils and some modern individuals show that during the Pleistocene, the human brain used to be at its maximum size, but suddenly became smaller in the later stages of the Holocene. ).

The results of the above study have broken the long-standing hypothesis that the human brain has increased in size and volume with evolution.

Researchers from Darmouth University (USA), led by Dr. Jeremy DeSilva, investigated the historical evolutionary model of the human brain through 985 human fossils belonging to different periods, compared with people today.

Skulls of various human species have existed on Earth from the Pleistocene of the Neolithic to the present, with mostly increasing in size over time to accommodate larger brains, but there are exceptions - (Photo : Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post).

According to EurekAlert, they recognized a period when the human brain increased in size significantly, which was about 2.1 to 1.5 million years ago, which lasted from the end of the Pliocene of the New Age. Near, to the Pleistocene of the Quaternary (to which we belong).

The Pleistocene (about 1.8 million years ago to 11,700 years ago) was also a period when mankind made remarkable evolutionary steps in the use of tools and social organization, typically the development. of a large and intelligent species of the genus Homo - Homo erectus, with a brain much larger than that of its predecessors.

However, according to a paper published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution about 3,000 years ago, the average human brain size began to shrink, which the authors say is due to adaptation to social life. As society gradually evolved in the direction that individuals were assigned tasks more selectively within the apparatus, the brain adapted to become more efficient - smaller, rather than bulky.

Some of the things that individual brains have had to bear in previous generations can be "relieved" through the dependence and manipulation of collective intelligence - the very comforts of all kinds that we strive for. strive to make life easier. Therefore the brain also needs less energy to function and has evolved to shrink in size. This will help the body save a lot of energy because the brain is the organ that consumes the most energy in the human body.

Furthermore, big brains are not synonymous with higher intelligence, as evidenced by an ancient human species - the Neanderthals, belonging to the same genus as our Homo sapiens, which went extinct about 30,000 years ago, had a much larger brain. we. Although possessing many skills and development "on par" with Homo sapiens, they were considered to be less able to adapt to adversity and social organization, so they became extinct when the Earth's environment changed. unfavorable change.