A long period of helpless infancy after birth is one of the most unique and mysterious characteristics in human life history. Because this trait is intimately linked to rapid postnatal brain growth, which is essential to produce the large human brain, researchers have long been interested in when it evolved. In a new study, researchers introduce a new method that serves as a direct indicator of helpless infancy and can be easily applied to the existing hominin fossils. They focused on a type of asymmetric cranial deformity that is a direct outcome of helpless infancy. Because this deformity tends to be retained later in life, it can be a signature of helpless infancy even when found in adult cranial fossils. The results demonstrated that extensive cranial deformation is not present in great apes. They found that some Indonesia Homo erectus and Homo floresiensis skulls exhibit huma-like severe cranial deformation. These support a deep evolutionary origin of hominin helpless infancy, and imply both elaborate parental childcare and cooperative social behaviours that could likely have accompanied it.
Read the news article in Science:Read the research article in Proceedings B:
Hey there, human. I’m Knowing Noah, and I’ve got bad news about your body: it’s not broken, it’s just 50,000 years out of date. Height, body type, foot shape, body hair, blood type. You didn’t pick any of it. Somebody in your bloodline needed that exact build to survive a specific place, and then the place changed and you got stuck with the receipt. Every video takes one trait, splits it into types you’ll spot yourself in immediately, and explains what yours was actually for. Real biology, real trade-offs, dry humor. No personality quizzes, no best version of anything. Every build wins somewhere and pays for it somewhere else. Your body is a survival machine built for a world that no longer exists. Let’s find out which one.
The channel has loads more of body related claims. Some dubious.