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Human altriciality is driven by postnatal brain growth

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Humans are considered to be altricial (strongly underdeveloped at birth) with respect to other primates, but this observation is driven by the strong postnatal enlargement of human brains. We inferred that the developmental stage of human brains at birth does not differ substantially from that of other fossil hominins.

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Fig. 1: Evolution of human brain development.

References

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This is a summary of: Gómez-Robles, A. et al. The evolution of human altriciality and brain development in comparative context. Nat. Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02253-z (2023).

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Human altriciality is driven by postnatal brain growth. Nat Ecol Evol 8, 20–21 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02262-y

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