The DOI matches its Crossref record; 144 of the 144 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Brain ontogeny and life history in Pleistocene hominins
Open accessAbstract
A high level of encephalization is critical to the human adaptive niche and emerged among hominins over the course of the past 2 Myr. Evolving larger brains required important adaptive adjustments, in particular regarding energy allocation and life history. These adaptations included a relatively small brain at birth and a protracted growth of highly dependent offspring within a complex social environment. In turn, the extended period of growth and delayed maturation of the brain structures of humans contribute to their cognitive complexity. The current palaeoanthropological evidence shows that, regarding life history and brain ontogeny, the Pleistocene hominin taxa display different patterns and that one cannot simply contrast an 'ape-model' to a 'human-model'. Large-brained hominins such as Upper Pleistocene Neandertals have evolved along their own evolutionary pathway and can be distinguished from modern humans in terms of growth pattern and brain development. The life-history pattern and brain ontogeny of extant humans emerged only recently in the course of human evolution.
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“The two species display different ontogenetic trajectories [18, 19] resulting in craniofacial differences that invariably lead to a more ‘gracile’, ‘juvenile’ profile in AMH relative to Neanderthals.”
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In the citing paper
“while the brain size and encephalization of humans and Neanderthals is similar9,13,14.”
From A catalog of single nucleotide changes distinguishing modern humans from archaic hominins (2019) · cites this paper as [9]
In the citing paper
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From A catalog of single nucleotide changes distinguishing modern humans from archaic hominins (2019) · cites this paper as [9]
In the citing paper
“We suggest that modifications of a complex network in cognition or learning took place in modern human evolution128, possibly related to other brain-related9,16,129,130, vocal tract131 or neural changes132.”
From A catalog of single nucleotide changes distinguishing modern humans from archaic hominins (2019) · cites this paper as [9]
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“early differences in infant brain growth between humans and Neanderthals9,10 could have rendered our maturational profile distinct during limited developmental periods and within specific brain regions, imposing different metabolic requirements163.”
From A catalog of single nucleotide changes distinguishing modern humans from archaic hominins (2019) · cites this paper as [9]
In the citing paper
“Even so, divergent morphogenetic trajectories underlying shape differences, such as brain development (29)(30)(31) and cranio-facial morphology (32,33) can exist within this broadly human growth pattern.”
From The growth pattern of Neandertals, reconstructed from a juvenile skeleton from El Sidrón (Spain) (2017) · cites this paper as [31]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Hublin, J.-J., Neubauer, S., & Gunz, P.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (DE)
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2015-03-05
- Volume
- 370
- Issue
- 1663
- Pages
- 20140062
- ISSN
- 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2970
- PMC
- PMC4305163
- OpenAlex
- W1985807189
- Cited by
- 173
- References
- 144
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 7
- FWCI
- 21.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Keywords
- brain ontogeny, life history, Pleistocene hominins, encephalization, Neanderthals, brain growth, energy allocation, delayed maturation, brain development, human evolution
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Brain, Biological Evolution, Fossils, Humans, Organ Size, Paleontology, Species Specificity, Hominidae
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