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Hominid brain expansion and reproductive success

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2001

C. Owen Lovejoy
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242 olovejoy@aol.com

Abstract

Although many aspects of human cognition are likely to be “spandrels” passively affiliated with the primary impetus for hominid brain expansion during the Plio-Pleistocene, that expansion was most likely generated and maintained not by “housekeeping” functions but by improved capacities of reproductive success, especially survivorship.

Type
Brief Report
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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