Jandila comments on Brain shrinkage in humans over past ~20 000 years - what did we lose? - Less Wrong

15 Post author: Dmytry 18 February 2012 10:17PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 09 March 2012 09:02:56PM 0 points [-]

Floresiensis had a total brain volume in the chimp/australopithecus range, yes, but the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (associated with higher cognition in humans) is about the same size as it is in anatomically-modern homo sapiens. Their habitation sites show all the usual hominin features: fire, bones with cut marks, stone tools of comparable sophistication to contemporary h. sapiens with four times the brain volume -- and the prey species associated with the sites, stegodontids, would necessitate cooperative hunts.