Neanderthals' big eyes came at a big cost

• Autores: Michael Marshall
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2908, 2013, pág. 8
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Neanderthals may have had bigger eyes than modern humans, but while this helped them see better, it may have meant that they didn't have brainpower to spare for complex social lives. If true, this may have been a disadvantage when the ice age reduced access to food, as they wouldn't have had the skills to procure help from beyond their normal social group, speculates Robin Dunbar at the University of Oxford. Neanderthals' brains were roughly the same size as modern humans, but may have been organized differently. To find out, a team led by Dunbar studied the skulls of 13 Neanderthals and 32 anatomically modern humans.