https://www.discovermagazine.com/pla...-the-stone-age
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Is this news? Bronze age and Paleolithic people had average brain ccs 1550+, now in the modern era 1450 cc is considered very big. I think it is mainly due to millenia of agriculture, sedentary life and civilisation. On an educated guess, I think modern people have gotten smaller brains, but have more unique or refined psychological faculties beginning with the need for arithmetical and algebraic thinking, at least compared to the people of the Paleolithic and neanderthals (I'm not so sure about Bronze age though).
https://files.catbox.moe/irc6wb.png
I could believe that.
Homo domesticatus
It hasnt been completely uniform by the way. It reversed a bit in some places between the middle ages and now, also during the bronze age
https://www.nature.com/articles/4813...tcallback=true
yet IQ has been rising steadily ever since it's been recorded (Flynn effect)...explain that?
My explanation: one of these claims is untrue.
Like I said I think people can develop cognitive adaptations without necessarily having larger brains. I know its' a cheap examples but dolphins and elephants both have larger brains than humans do, and both are very cerebral and intelligent animals, but they aren't as smart as a human is. The Flynn effect certainly hasnt been uniform either, in some places its the been the opposite. Remember this is over 10s of 1000s of years.
Its not only the size that matters by connectivity of neurons
You also have to take into account that hunter gatherers ate much heftier diets and had to constantly be active too and avoid natural disasters like blizzards, deal with super predators, remember everything, one false move and you'd die. They uncovered hominids in South Africa who had subsisted on plant and fibre based diets and they all had noticeably small brains, compared to people who ate meat, dairy, fish and especially shellfish, who would have bigger brains
http://archive.fo/vVAfl
"To make the problem worse, the mutation also hinders the production of beneficial Omega 3 fatty acid which is protective against heart disease. Although it may not have mattered when the mutation first developed, since the industrial revolution there has been a major shift in diets away from Omega 3 – found in fish and nuts - to less healthy Omega 6 fats - found in vegetable oils."
Many vegetarians also struggle to get enough iron, vitamin D, vitamin B12 and calcium which are essential for health. One study found that vegetarians had approximately five percent lower bone-mineral density (BMD) than non-vegetarians.
However other research suggests vegetarianism lowers the risk of diabetes, stroke and obesity.