Neanderthals' large eyes 'caused their demise'

[RichTravsky]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21759233
A study of Neanderthal skulls suggests that they became extinct because
they had larger eyes than our species.

As a result, more of their brains were devoted to seeing in the long,
dark nights in Europe, at the expense of high-level processing.

By contrast, the larger frontal brain regions of Homo sapiens led to
the fashioning of warmer clothes and the development of larger social
networks.
...
The research team explored the idea that the ancestor of Neanderthals
left Africa and had to adapt to the longer, darker nights and murkier
days of Europe. The result was that Neanderthals evolved larger eyes
and a much larger visual processing area at the backs of their brains.

The humans that stayed in Africa, on the other hand, continued to
enjoy bright and beautiful days and so had no need for such an
adaption. Instead, these people, our ancestors, evolved their frontal
lobes, associated with higher-level thinking, before they spread
across the globe.

Eiluned Pearce of Oxford University decided to check this theory. She
compared the skulls of 32 Homo sapiens and 13 Neanderthals.

Ms Pearce found that Neanderthals had significantly larger eye sockets
- by an average of 6mm from top to bottom.

Although this seems like a small amount, she said that it was enough
for Neanderthals to use significantly more of their brains to process
visual information.

"Since Neanderthals evolved at higher latitudes, more of the
Neanderthal brain would have been dedicated to vision and body
control, leaving less brain to deal with other functions like social
networking," she told BBC News.

This is a view backed by Prof Chris Stringer, who was also involved
in the research and is an expert in human origins at the Natural
History Museum in London.

"We infer that Neanderthals had a smaller cognitive part of the brain
and this would have limited them, including their ability to form
larger groups. If you live in a larger group, you need a larger brain
in order to process all those extra relationships," he explained.
...


The full paper is here

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1758/20130168.full

[JTEM]

RichTravsky <traRvEskyM...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> By contrast, the larger frontal brain regions of
> Homo sapiens led to the fashioning of warmer
> clothes and the development of larger social
> networks.

Neanderthal brains were significantly larger than
their African counterparts.

The study you're quoting isn't comparing
Neanderthals to their African counterparts,
by the way. It's comparing them to the
cro-magnon, whom they would have undoubtedly
shared some DNA with.

HINT: Modern europeans today have Neanderthal
DNA, and the cro-magnons were between us and
the Neanderthals, so the cro-Magnons are the
people who passed us that Neanderthal DNA.

If anything, they would have had much, much
more Neanderthal DNA than us...

I'll spell this out for you: You're comparing
Neanderthals to a people who in all likelihood
only had large brains because they inherited
their large brains from Neanderthals.

Yes there are reported differences in brain
shape -- relative size and shape of the various
parts of the brain -- but as far as actual size
and capacity goes, the edge was clearly in favor
of Neanderthals until other populations began
to grow their brains larger... and that didn't
happen until they intermixed with Neanderthals
it seems.


-- --

http://jtem.tumblr.com

[Paul Crowley]

On 16/03/2013 04:23, RichTravsky wrote:

> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21759233

> A study of Neanderthal skulls suggests that they
> became extinct because they had larger eyes
> than our species.
>
> As a result, more of their brains were devoted to
> seeing in the long, dark nights in Europe, at the
> expense of high-level processing.

Is it me? Or has the speed with which this
"science" is degenerating into total garbage
recently become extremely rapid?

How could any partially-educated person
take this kind of 'investigation' seriously?
It's not April 1 already? Or am I missing
something else?

> By contrast, the larger frontal brain regions of
> Homo sapiens led to the fashioning of warmer
> clothes and the development of larger social

> networks.....

Actually, as soon as you see -- in connection
with anything paleontological -- the word
"brain" or the phrase "social networks", you
know that you will be subject to a large
dump of excreta.

> The research team explored the idea
> that the ancestor of Neanderthals left Africa and
> had to adapt to the longer, darker nights and
> murkier days of Europe. The result was that
> Neanderthals evolved larger eyes and a much
> larger visual processing area at the backs of their
> brains.

So this must apply to all species. Temperate
populations will be more stupid that tropical
ones.

> The humans that stayed in Africa, on the other
> hand, continued to enjoy bright and beautiful days
> and so had no need for such an adaption.
> Instead, these people, our ancestors, evolved
> their frontal lobes, associated with higher-level
> thinking, before they spread across the globe.

This is so childish, that it does not even
merit a sarcastic comment.

> Eiluned Pearce of Oxford University decided to
> check this theory. She compared the skulls of 32
> Homo sapiens and 13 Neanderthals.

A whole 13? Wow! Wasn't she afraid of
being swamped with data?

> This is a view backed by Prof Chris Stringer, who
> was also involved in the research and is an expert
> in human origins at the Natural History Museum
> in London.
>
> "We infer that Neanderthals had a smaller
> cognitive part of the brain and this would have
> limited them, including their ability to form larger
> groups. If you live in a larger group, you need a
> larger brain in order to process all those extra
> relationships," he explained.

I used to have some respect for Stringer.
Not any more.

Many birds can recognise dozens of humans
-- yes humans -- they can probably recognise
hundreds of their own species. Dogs can
recognise dozens of individual humans. So
can numerous other species. The notion
that this kind of operation requires more than
a few brain cells is stupid beyond belief.


Paul.