Big Brain Evolution Essay

One of the ongoing arguments within the field of Human Evolution is how and why our big brains evolved. Brains are really expensive. Our brains are much larger than they ought to be. There has to be a reason for a brain to both evolve, and be sustained, that is larger than necessary for the basic physical metabolic processes. Big brains need an increased and more efficient diet in order to be maintained. Evolving a large brain must mean that brain size offered an important fitness advantage; otherwise it’s hard to see why it would happen. There are two main competing sets of hypotheses about why or how the larger brain of primates evolved: through ecological demands or social complexity and competition.
The currently favored model is the
They still maintain, however, that the ecological model is simply not as effective as the Social Brain Hypothesis when solving the same ecological problem: the SBH would solve it socially, while the ecological hypothesis solves it individually. The authors have a point. Solving the issues of foraging or learning how to scavenge efficiently is accomplished much easier through a group. Knowledge can be learned and then passed on. For all that, there is still a major flaw. The SBH explains what can be done with these big brains, but it still does not quite address why they
This is very useful to increase the ability to learn and plan and would help deal with both ecological and social changes. We can possess, use, and thrive in nearly any environment in the world. Humans are inherently adaptable. Keep in mind that our diet is not singular; instead it is broad, adaptable, and variable. As the environment changed, either through migration or climate change, they were faced with new difficulties of finding food and other resources. Being able to figure out a new environment favored those that were