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I read that same study, but I don't know where you got the part about better vision. The part of the brain that has to do with vision is in the back of the brain and those with larger occipital buns in the back of their heads(like Austrailian aborigines) have better visual accuity. The reason that people in colder climates have larger skulls is because in tropical climates, the size of the skull is limited because of the heat. Smaller heads disipate heat better, while larger heads retain heat.
Also the size of a whale's brain is not a good comparison to humans. The issue is brain to body size ratio, not simply the actual physical size of the brain.
When you compare different peoples of the same latitude, for instance near the equator, you will notice their skull size varies quite a bit. So, it can't be the heat. The rest of the body is much more suitable to take care of heat dissipation and such stuff.
In terms of brain to body mass, that is not a very meaningful indicator as there are so many factors and exceptions.
The elephant brain for instance is special in that the regions responsible for smelling and hearing are unusually big, reflecting the extreme power of those senses in elephants.
I read that same study, but I don't know where you got the part about better vision. The part of the brain that has to do with vision is in the back of the brain and those with larger occipital buns in the back of their heads(like Austrailian aborigines) have better visual accuity. The reason that people in colder climates have larger skulls is because in tropical climates, the size of the skull is limited because of the heat. Smaller heads disipate heat better, while larger heads retain heat.
Also the size of a whale's brain is not a good comparison to humans. The issue is brain to body size ratio, not simply the actual physical size of the brain.
well vision is not always perfect and without the help of contacts or glasses alot of people would have bad vision. I mean without my contacts I can't read a freeway sign past 5-6 car lengths without them
When you compare different peoples of the same latitude, for instance near the equator, you will notice their skull size varies quite a bit. So, it can't be the heat. The rest of the body is much more suitable to take care of heat dissipation and such stuff.
In terms of brain to body mass, that is not a very meaningful indicator as there are so many factors and exceptions.
The elephant brain for instance is special in that the regions responsible for smelling and hearing are unusually big, reflecting the extreme power of those senses in elephants.
Yeah, I was referring to another study, the one that debunked Stephen J. Gould that came out last month.
With regards to different skull sizes for those populations near the equator, I assume this is because of separate lineages. Some populations like Malays and MesoAmericans are relative newcomers to that lattitude compared to sub-Saharan Africans and Papuans.
And I will try to read through the Spiegel article when get off work and comment on that then.
The first book, especially and other not as much also had very detailed research done on the world, the plants and climate and animals. That made it rather magical to be able to see the world as some other time had. Part of looking at how a people or species lived is seeing the world as they did. All that detail added a lot to the story.
I just read an interesting article. Scientists have found out the farther to the poles, the bigger the eyes and brains.
With animal species that was no secret, but it also seems to apply to humans. Scandinavians and north Asians have the biggest brains, simply because the reduced intensity and duration of sunshine required an improved vision system. This includes the part of the brain responsible for seeing.
However, the bigger brain volume has nothing to do with intelligence. Whales also have huge brains, not least to the enlarged regions associated with certain senses.
That evolution took only a few tens of thousands of years, which is pretty fast.
I am mentioning that in this thread because there have been comments on the bigger brains of Neanderthals compared to modern humans. Maybe senses had something to do with that difference, not intelligence.
It's the convergence of the increase in human brain capacity and intelligence (as evidenced by improved tools and a giant leap in creativity) and the sharing of genes with the Neanderthal which is most noted. With increased brain capacity, if a greater ability to sense was not a survival trait and didn't take, the *capacity* remains and the other portions of the brain which do pertain with have the space to enlarge.
I think Neanderthals are still among us. I think it's hard to believe that humans and Neanderthals had no contact.
Sure are.
Look at the far-right loonies like the KKK and Aryan Brotherhood and CSAotL, April Gaede and her flock of wierdos trying to make an Aryan nation in the Pacific Northwest, Stormfront, fundamental Christians and Muslims, etc.
Look at the far-left communists who in the last century killed millions of people and probably hundreds of thousands of doctors, teachers, military officers, etc. in the name of the working man in China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Russia, North Korea, Laos, and Eastern Europe.
Finally, take a look at elected officials and appointees in the US, none of whom I would trust with plunging a toilet, much less running the world's economic powerhouse (which probably won't be for much longer) and protecting our "freedoms" from "foreign" threats, when we really should be looking inward and solving our own Goddamned problems. They give away money to people who hate us, they give away food to people who sell it instead of giving it to the poor like it should go, banning nuclear energy and encouraging environmentally destructive practices such as drilling for oil and fracking for natural gas..
Yeah, I'm pretty sure the Neanderthal is alive and well in modern times.
According to a recent article in Science magazine modern humans by far outnumbered, probably simply outbred Neanderthals within a relatively short period of time. Maybe they had a different religion, some kind of fertility cult that made them have many more kids than Neanderthals had.
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