The DOI matches its Crossref record; 105 of the 106 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The primitive brain of early Homo
Open accessAbstract
Brain evolution in early Homo Human brains are larger than and structurally different from the brains of the great apes. Ponce de León et al. explored the timing of the origins of the structurally modern human brain (see the Perspective by Beaudet). By comparing endocasts, representations of the inner surface of fossil brain cases, from early Homo from Africa, Georgia, and Southeast Asia, they show that these structural innovations emerged later than the first dispersal of the genus from Africa, and were probably in place by 1.7 to 1.5 million years ago. The modern humanlike brain organization emerged in cerebral regions thought to be related to toolmaking, social cognition, and language. Their findings suggest that brain reorganization was not a prerequisite for dispersals from Africa, and that there might have been more than one long-range dispersal of early Homo . Science , this issue p. 165 ; see also p. 124
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“With the evolution of Homo, brains began to expand but gross neural organization may have remained primitive (Ponce de León et al., 2021).”
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 Ponce de León et al., 2021
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Metadata
- Authors
- Ponce de León, M. S., Bienvenu, T., Marom, A., Engel, S., Tafforeau, P., Alatorre Warren, J. L., Lordkipanidze, D., Kurniawan, I., Murti, D. B., Suriyanto, R. A., Koesbardiati, T., & Zollikofer, C. P. E.
- Affiliations
- Department of Anthropology and Anthropological Museum, University of Zurich, CH-8052 Zurich, Switzerland.
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (IL)
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (FR)
- Georgian National Museum (GE)
- Museum of Geology, Jln. Diponegoro 57, Bandung 40122, Indonesia.
- Universitas Airlangga (ID)
- Universitas Gadjah Mada (ID)
- Corresponding author
- Zollikofer, Christoph P. E.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2021-04-09
- Volume
- 372
- Issue
- 6538
- Pages
- 165-171
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W3148838946
- Cited by
- 142
- References
- 106
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 12
- FWCI
- 96.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Universitas Airlangga Repository (Universitas Airlangga) (acceptedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
- Funders
- European Commission
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (EC-767)
- Swiss National Science Foundation (IZ73Z0_127940, 31003A_135470, IZ73Z0, 127940, 31003A, 135470)
- 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 evolution, early Homo, endocast, tool manufacturing, social cognition, language evolution, hominin dispersal
- MeSH terms
- Africa, Animals, Asia, Western, Brain, Biological Evolution, Fossils, Frontal Lobe, Humans, Skull, Hominidae
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