Human Brain Size Evolution

Archeological evidence shows that there were about a dozen human species in the past. They exhibited morphological differences, especially different brain sizes. The earliest members of our genus Homo emerged over 2 million years ago. Since then, the volume of the human brain has gradually increased as humans evolved. Homo habilis, who is possibly the earliest known member of our genus and lived from roughly 2.8 million to 1.65 million years ago in Africa according to existing fossil evidence, had a brain size of about 550– 690 cm3. Homo erectus, who lived from roughly 2 million to 110,000 years ago in Africa, Asia, and Europe, had a brain size of about 600– 1250 cm3. Homo heidelbergensis, who lived from roughly 600,000 to 200,000 years ago in Africa and Europe, had a brain size of about 1100–1400 cm3. Homo neanderthalensis, who is commonly known as the Neanderthals and lived mainly in Europe from possibly 430,000 to 40,000 years ago, had a brain size of about 1200–1750 cm3. Homo sapiens, who emerged as early as 300,000 years ago, has an average brain size of about 1400 cm3. Therefore, except for the Neanderthals who had an even larger brain size than Homo sapiens, the human brain size has been increasing from early members of genus Homo to modern humans…