Survival of the Fattest: The Key to Human Brain Evolution by Stephen Cosgrave Cunnane (Repost)
Survival of the Fattest: The Key to Human Brain Evolution by Stephen Cosgrave Cunnane
English | June 2005 | ISBN: 9812561919, 9812563180 | 368 Pages | PDF | 17,6 MB
English | June 2005 | ISBN: 9812561919, 9812563180 | 368 Pages | PDF | 17,6 MB
Evolution, in general, depends on a special combination of circumstances: part genetics, part time, and part environment. In the case of human brain evolution, the main environmental influence was adaptation to a 'shore-based' diet, which provided the world's richest source of nutrition, as well as a sedentary lifestyle that promoted fat deposition. Such a diet included shellfish, fish, marsh plants, frogs, bird's eggs, etc. Humans, and more importantly, hominid babies started to get fat, a crucial distinction that led to the development of larger brains and to the evolution of modern humans. A larger brain is expensive to maintain and this increasing demand for energy results in, succintly, survival of the fattest.