The weather's getting warmer. Is it time to show off those big brains?
Sometimes the historical context in which some trait emerges offers insight into what it is for. Hominins developed their large brains after they left forests in favor of the more open habitat of grasslands dotted with trees. This transition brought a shift away from coarser foods such as fruits and leaves in favor of more energy-dense foods, such as meat, fish, grubs, and honey.
As the gut got reduced, there was an increase in brain size. This is explainable in terms of the reduced energy demands of digestion that freed up more metabolic energy for brain function. There is a limit to how large brains can become if babies are to be birthed. So the brains of modern humans are not appreciably larger than those of Homo erectus. Nevertheless, an important evolutionary change in brain metabolism allowed the brain to use energy more rapidly so that our brain uses about 10 times as much energy as other bodily tissues .
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