Guts and Brains: An Integrative Approach to the Hominin RecordWil Roebroeks The human brain and its one hundred billion neurons compose the most complex organ in the body and harness more than 20% of all the energy we produce. Why do we have such large and energy-demanding brains, and how have we been able to afford such an expensive organ for thousands of years? Guts and Brains discusses the key variables at stake in such a question, including the relationship between brain size and diet, diet and social organization, and large brains and the human sexual division of labor. Showcasing how small changes in the diet of early hominins came to have large implications for the behavior of modern humans, this interdisciplinary volume provides an entry for the reader into understanding the development of both early primates and our own species. |
Contents
An Integrative Approach to the Hominin Record 7 | 7 |
Energetics and the Evolution of Brain Size in Early Homo | 29 |
The Evolution of Diet Brain and Life History among Primates and | 47 |
Why Hominins Had Big Brains | 91 |
Evidence | 107 |
Haak en Steek The Tool that Allowed Hominins to Colonize the | 133 |
Common terms and phrases
acacia adaptive adult African Aiello animal Anthropology apes archaeological record australopithecines behaviour Binford Blurton-Jones bovids brain evolution brain weight Cambridge carnivores changes chimpanzees cognitive Combe Grenal complex cooperation costs diet dietary Dmanisi Dunbar early hominins early Homo ecological energetic energy environmental Europe evidence evolutionary exploitation females foraging strategies fossil Hadza herbivores home range hominins Homo erectus Human Evolution hunter-gatherers hunters hunting hypotheses implications increased isotopic Journal of Human Kaplan large carnivores large mammals larger brains learning Leonard lifespan lions longevity male mammals meat metabolic Middle Palaeolithic Milton modern humans modern hunter-gatherers mortality Mousterian Neandertals neocortex niche O'Connell patterns plant Pleistocene Pliocene populations predation prey primates productivity prosimian protein rates red deer reindeer relationship relatively reproductive Roebroeks savanna shift social spear species Stiner suggest terrestrial terrestrial animals thorns tion tissue tool University Press Upper Palaeolithic values variability volume