Post reply

Reply to the message by David Turell

Name:

E-mail: (optional, won't be displayed directly)

Leave this field empty:

Homepage: (optional)

Leave this field empty:

Location: (optional)

Remember me (cookie)

Category:

Subject:

Formatting help

skip to input

format text bold: [b]bold text[/b]
format text italic: [i]italic text[/i]
insert hyperlink: [link=http://example.com/]link text[/link] / [link]http://example.com/[/link]
set text color: [color=#rgb]colored text[/color]
font size: [size=small]small text[/size]; [size=large]large text[/size]
insert list: [list][*]list item[/list]
insert image: [img]http://example.com/image.jpg[/img]; left: [img=left]http://example.com/image.jpg[/img]; right: [img=right]http://example.com/image.jpg[/img]; thumbnail: [img=thumbnail]http://example.com/image.jpg[/img]; thumbnail left: [img=thumbnail-left]http://example.com/image.jpg[/img]; thumbnail right: [img=thumbnail-right]http://example.com/image.jpg[/img]

:-)
;-)
:-P
:-D
:-|
:-(

Message:

> A newly studied 20 myo monkey brain reveals clues as to brain evolution:
> 
> https://cosmosmagazine.com/palaeontology/lifting-the-lid-on-primate-brains?utm_source=Cosmos+-+Master+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=02dc1a9c75-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3f5c04479a-02dc1a9c75-180344213
> 
> "A fossilised primate skull the size of a chicken egg has yielded insights into how primate brains – including our own – evolved.
> 
> "The 20-million-year-old near-complete skull is a rare specimen. It belongs to Chilecebus carrascoensis, a primate that scampered around the Chilean Andes during the Miocene. 
> 
> "The species is a member of the New World monkeys, or platyrrhines, a group found in Central and South America which today includes marmosets, capuchins and spider monkeys. 
> 
> ***
> 
> "Weighing in at around eight grams, Chilecebus had a brain roughly the size of a marmoset’s. 
> However, unlike a marmoset’s brain, which has quite a smooth surface, Chilecebus’s brain had seven pairs of grooves – sulci – on its surface. 
> 
> "The presence of sulci is usually associated with larger, more cognitively advanced brains. The Chilecebus brain suggests size and brain folds don’t go hand in hand. 
> 
> "Other anatomical features also seem to evolve independently. 
> 
> ***
> 
> "The findings support the idea that the primate brain evolves in a complex “mosaic” fashion, with different functional regions evolving independently of others. 
> 
> "New World monkeys split from the other main group of primates, the catarrhines, more than 40 million years ago. This group includes the Old World monkeys of Asia and Africa – baboons and mandrils and the like – and apes, to which our own lineage belongs. 
> 
> "In both groups, brain size has increased over time – a situation of convergent evolution. 
> But the comparison also reveals just how weird human brains are. 
> 
> “'[b]Only within the human lineage are the brains exceptionally enlarged,” says Ni. Human brains enlarged three times more than would be predicted based on the evolutionary trajectory of other lineages"[/b]. (my  bold)
> 
> Comment: Note my bold. Our brain evolved in a different trajectory.