CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 896Pleistocene-Era Hominins and ArchaeologyForensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology StudiesEvolution and Paleontology Studies

Body mass and encephalization in Pleistocene Homo.

Ruff, Christopher B., Trinkaus, Erik, Holliday, Trenton W.·1997·Nature
DOI 10.1038/387173a0
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Many dramatic changes in morphology within the genus Homo have occurred over the past 2 million years or more, including large increases in absolute brain size and decreases in postcanine dental size and skeletal robusticity. Body mass, as the 'size' variable against which other morphological features are usually judged, has been important for assessing these changes. Yet past body mass estimates for Pleistocene Homo have varied greatly, sometimes by as much as 50% for the same individuals. Here we show that two independent methods of body-mass estimation yield concordant results when applied to Pleistocene Homo specimens. On the basis of an analysis of 163 individuals, body mass in Pleistocene Homo averaged significantly (about 10%) larger than a representative sample of living humans. Relative to body mass, brain mass in late archaic H. sapiens (Neanderthals) was slightly smaller than in early 'anatomically modern' humans, but the major increase in encephalization within Homo occurred earlier during the Middle Pleistocene (600-150 thousand years before present (kyr BP)), preceded by a long period of stasis extending through the Early Pleistocene (1,800 kyr BP).

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/387173a0

Cites

18 of 18 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • A steady increase in brain size independent of body size followed the second changepoint and lasted through the Pleistocene.

    “A steady increase in brain size-independent of body size-followed and lasted through the Pleistocene (Ruff et al., 1997;Lee and Wolpoff, 2003;Rightmire, 2004;Hawks, 2011).”

    From When and Why Did Human Brains Decrease in Size? A New Change-Point Analysis and Insights From Brain Evolution in Ants (2021) · cites this paper as Ruff et al., 1997

  • Human body size, as measured from skeletal dimensions, reduced during the past 30,000 years, at least in some populations.

    “Human body size, as measured from skeletal dimensions, did reduce during the past 30,000 years, at least in some populations [1,6,7,12].”

    From Selection for smaller brains in Holocene human evolution (2011) · cites this paper as [1]

  • Human populations during the last 10,000 years have undergone rapid decreases in average brain size as measured by endocranial volume or estimated from linear cranial measurements.

    “Human populations during the last 10,000 years have undergone rapid decreases in average brain size as measured by endocranial volume or as estimated from linear measurements of the cranium.”

    From Selection for smaller brains in Holocene human evolution (2011) · cites this paper as [1]

  • The decline in body mass in human populations during the last 10,000 years has been estimated as less than 5 kg, or less than a 10 percent reduction in mass from a Late Upper Paleolithic mean of some 63 kg.

    “The decline in body mass in human populations during the last 10,000 years has been estimated as less than 5 kg, or less than a 10 percent reduction in mass from a Late Upper Paleolithic mean of some 63 kg [1].”

    From Selection for smaller brains in Holocene human evolution (2011) · cites this paper as [1]

  • This reduction in body size influenced both mass and stature.

    “This reduction influenced both mass and stature [1,7,12].”

    From Selection for smaller brains in Holocene human evolution (2011) · cites this paper as [1]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Ruff, C. B., Trinkaus, E., & Holliday, T. W.
Affiliations
  • Johns Hopkins University (US)
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
  • William & Mary (US)
ORCID
Venue
Nature
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
1997-05
Volume
387
Issue
6629
Pages
173-176
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
DOI
10.1038/387173a0
OpenAlex
W2072482003
Cited by
896
References
18
Citations by year
2026: 19 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 38 · 2020: 33 · 2019: 64 · 2018: 35 · 2017: 38 · 2016: 41 · 2015: 40 · 2014: 46 · 2013: 39 · 2012: 45
FWCI
111.96
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
Keywords
body mass estimation, encephalization, Neanderthals, brain mass, anatomically modern humans, hominin evolution, Middle Pleistocene, brain size increase, skeletal robusticity
MeSH terms
Animals, Body Constitution, Body Weight, Brain, Biological Evolution, Female, Femur Head, Fossils, Humans, Male, Hominidae

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review