Brain evolution
The evolution of the human brain from hominids exists from 3-5 million years ago the present. The process of evolution has shown an increasing reorganization of the cerebral cortex.
The evolutionary history of the human brain shows a bigger brain as compared to body size. This trend has led to the present-day brain size being 2-3 times larger over the past 3 million years.
Australopithecus lived from 3.85-2.95 million years ago. They had the general cranial capacity of the size of an extant chimpanzee; 300-500 cm3. They were estimated to have a total neural count of 30-35 billion.
When moving into the era of homo, a steady increase in brain size was noted. For example, Homo habilis lived from 24-1.4 million years ago and had a cranial capacity of 600cm3. They also had around 40 billion neurons.
Homo heidelbergensis lived from 7,00,000 to 2,00,000 years ago and had a cranial capacity of 1290 cm3 and around 76 billion neurons.
Homo neaderthalensis, living from 4,00,000 to 40,000 years ago had a cranial capacity comparable to those of modern-day humans; around 1560-1600cm3. They were estimated to have around 85 billion neurons.
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