A mind set in stone: fossil traces of human brain evolution
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
17:00 UTC
Dr. Philipp Gunz
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig
Recording
Open recording
Hosted by BrainWeb70 minutes
Abstract
Brains do not fossilise, but as they grow and expand during fetal and infant development, they leave an imprint in the bony braincase. Such imprints of fossilised braincases provide direct evidence of brain evolution, but the underlying biological changes have remained elusive. Combining data from fossil skulls, ancient genomes, brain imaging and gene expression helps shed light on the evolutionary changes shaping the human brain. I will highlight two examples separated by more than 3 million years: the evolution of brain growth in Lucy and her kind, and differences between modern humans and Neanderthals.
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