Early Humans Born With Big Brains

A new fossil, classified as Homo erectus and found in northern Ethiopia, is surprising archaeologists with its unusually wide pelvis—proportionally wider than those of “modern” human females. According to scientists, that suggests H. erectus babies may have been large-brained, able to become independent more quickly. In contrast, such alleged apeman fossils as australopithecine “Lucy” have much narrower pelvic openings.

H. erectus babies may have been large-brained, able to become independent more quickly.

Although considered by evolutionists to be an apeman—albeit “close” to modern humans—paleontologist Scott Simpson of Case Western Reserve University points out that H. erectus was much more similar to today’s humans than to chimpanzees. “Homo erectus was the first hominid species that left Africa; they were technologically sophisticated with stone tools; they hunted animals. Many behaviors we consider unique to [modern, BBC News adds] humans were present in Homo erectus.” Simpson was on the team that discovered the new fossil. H. erectus also “may also have been the first to control fire,” BBC News notes.

As with Neanderthals, the evidence strongly suggests that fossils dubbed H. erectus are normal, “modern” humans—at least, modern in the sense that they are not an evolutionary lineage; rather, they likely represent some of the original variability in the human form, some of which remains even today.

Also, while Neanderthal craniums are larger than other humans’, in this case it’s still conjecture about how large H. erectus baby brains may have been. And it’s an even more speculative idea since it’s based on a single fossil, which is only thought to be Homo erectus, and may not even be typical. Nonetheless, what remains is that even evolutionists identify H. erectus as displaying modern human behaviors, yet still won’t consider its skeletal differences as within the paradigm of human variability.

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