Please help me understand this - related to size of humans.

[RufusDawes]

http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/a-grey-matter-of-size-brains-arent-what-they-used-to-be/story-fn5fsgyc-1226074059863

I was under the impression that -

Early humans had to run very fast for long distances to catch prey, which meant big bodies were out of the question.

The bigger body requires more food meaning smaller people have an advantage.

How would a large say 6'4" 90kg male survive as a hunter ? How could he run fast enough for long enough and survive ?

I am intrigued that the earliest humans were tall, does anyone know how tall the would have been ? Surely no where near the size of modern humans ?

 

[Ryan_m_b]

It's hard to get to the bottom of this. A pubmed search of the scientist cited Marta Mirazón Lahr reveals that her only recent paper concerns evolution of Austroasiatic speakers and she is only one of twenty-seven () authors. It looks incomplete but her http://www.human-evol.cam.ac.uk/Members/Lahr/Lahr2.htm on Cambridge university website only lists one paper on human size from 1996.

The other scientist listed is Amanda Mummert, an anthropologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Strangely she isn't actually listed on the http://www.anthropology.emory.edu/FACULTY/index.html " from which this story has developed.

What's interesting about this paper is that it doesn't mention the word "brain" anywhere. There is also no mention that people are "10%" smaller. Tables 1, 2, 3 all show specific decreases in certain bones but nowhere does it say "modern humans are X smaller". The paper stresses that size varies hugely over time and geography with multiple reasons for changes.

I think this is another example of a news agency taking something very complex and simplifying it to fit a headline that the editor thinks will sell. If you are interested you can read the paper yourself and have a look for the answer to your question.

 

[Skrambles]

Bigger bodies do require more energy, but they also use that energy more efficiently. Longer strides also make walking more efficient. Both of these things together mean that taller humans can travel farther using the same amount of energy. So if the resources are very spread out in the environment, it would be better for you to be tall.

Don't forget about the whole sexual selection side of the equation either. Girls like tall guys, and tall guys tend to have tall children.

 

[gf11221]

O.O i didn't know that human brain is shrinking but increases intellectual knowledge rate

 

[Ryan_m_b]

O.O i didn't know that human brain is shrinking but increases intellectual knowledge rate

Where did you get that from??

 

[mishrashubham]

O.O i didn't know that human brain is shrinking but increases intellectual knowledge rate

Where did you get that from??

That was probably his interpretation of this sentence from the article the OP posted.

"We may have smaller brains than early humans but that does not mean we are less intelligent," she said.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

That was probably his interpretation of this sentence from the article the OP posted.

Sometimes mish I wonder why I bother spending my time going through databases of articles to find the original work to summarise.

Then I remember, I'm a scientist.

 

[mishrashubham]

Sometimes mish I wonder why I bother spending my time going through databases of articles to find the original work to summarise.

Then I remember, I'm a scientist.

Haha
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