The evolution of the mammalian brain was traced back 150 million years ago
Large brain size may have nothing to do with high mental abilities, scientists from the University of England Ruskin have found. They analyzed changes in brain and body size in 1,400 living and extinct mammalian species over the past 150 million years. It turned out that in each species, these processes went differently, according to Science Advances.
So, in great apes, both the brain and the body grew about the same. In hominids, the brain was actively growing, while the body, on the contrary, decreased.
The study found that two global events influenced brain size in different species. The first is the fall of an asteroid 66 million years ago and the subsequent extinction of the dinosaurs. A number of mammals (such as rodents and bats) have evolved rapidly to adapt to their new habitat.
About 30 million years later, a sharp cooling occurred on the Earth. As a result, the brain size of seals, bears and whales, as well as primates, has changed.
The study showed that in some cases, the size of the brain and trunk changed independently of each other. So, in a number of species, the body became smaller in order to adapt to new conditions, but the brain remained the same. As a result, it began to seem large in comparison with the rest of the organism, but this did not mean that its owner became more developed and acquired new cognitive functions.
“This study illustrates the danger of our own biases in interpreting the natural world. As we have established, the relative size of the brain may have nothing to do with intelligence, “- noted the authors of the scientific work.
Earlier it was reported that scientists have recreated the brain of a dinosaur. In structure, it resembles the brain of a crocodile.
