One of the greatest enigmas of human evolution is why we have such a large brain. We are very different from other animals, including our primate relatives. How and why did we end up with a brain so large in relation to our body size? If a hypothetical extraterrestrial scientist were to look at photos of all primates, there would be one that would stand out for two obvious reasons: first, it goes naked, without fur; second, it is very big-headed, in proportion to the size of its body. According to the encephalization quotient, which relates brain weight to the weight of an entire species' body, we are the winners. We have an index of 7.4, closely followed by dolphins with 5.3, and our closest primate relative, the chimpanzee, is far behind with 2.5, that is, three times less than humans. It is known that the difference in size is related to intelligence, making us the most intelligent animal on the planet. However, it is important to explain how and why we came to have such a bra
Climate changes have been driving the evolution of the human genus since our ancestors first ventured to walk upright, through the emergence of our species, Homo sapiens , and the great migrations of Huns, Mongols, and Vikings that changed history. Climate is vitally linked to ecosystems, so any change forces living beings to adapt, move to a more favorable location, or become extinct. The human genus seems to have excelled at the first two options throughout its two million-year history. The ability of species to adapt to environmental transformations is known as natural selection, one of the main engines of evolution, first described in Charles Darwin's book On the Origin of Species in 1859. However, it wasn't until 1925 that Raymond Dart proposed that climate had been a significant driver in human evolution. This marked the beginning of the Savannah Hypothesis, which suggests that our ancestors took a different evolutionary path from other primates to adapt to life on the Af