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Different environmental variables predict body and brain size evolution in Homo.

Manuel Will1, Mario Krapp2,3, Jay T Stock4,5

  • 1Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. manuel.will@uni-tuebingen.de.

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Environmental temperature significantly influenced hominin body size, aligning with Bergmann's rule. Other environmental factors had minimal impact on brain size evolution in the genus Homo.

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Area of Science:

  • Paleoanthropology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Climate Science

Background:

  • Hominin evolution is characterized by increasing body and brain size.
  • The drivers of these macro-evolutionary changes in the genus Homo are debated, with hypotheses including environmental, demographic, social, dietary, and technological factors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the influence of environmental factors on the evolution of body and brain size in the genus Homo over the last million years.
  • To quantitatively assess the relationship between paleoclimatic data and hominin biological changes.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a large fossil dataset of the genus Homo.
  • Integrated global paleoclimatic reconstructions (temperature, net primary productivity, precipitation variability).
  • Employed a quantitative statistical framework to test formalized hypotheses.

Main Results:

  • Identified temperature as a significant predictor of body size variation in Homo, consistent with Bergmann's rule.
  • Found correlations between net primary productivity and precipitation variability with brain size, but these explained little variation.
  • Demonstrated that most tested environmental factors did not strongly correspond with body and brain size evolution.

Conclusions:

  • Environmental temperature is a key factor influencing hominin body size.
  • The link between environmental factors and brain size evolution is indirect, potentially involving cognitive abilities and extinction probabilities.
  • Complex, multifaceted scenarios likely underlie the evolution of key biological characteristics in later Homo.