smaller brains = ?

Discussion in 'Biology & Genetics' started by sculptor, Jul 24, 2018.

  1. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    future of the species?
     
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  3. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Islands with limited resources cause species to diminish in size. If the Earth has limited resources, maybe that will happen to us.
     
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  5. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    Quite possible it may have been indirectly coincident to becoming bipedal with a bone realignment for speed and long range hunting.
     
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  7. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    Your speculation of childhood or maternal inflammation robbing the adult brain fits that data.
    So does my speculation of greater efficiency and advances in architecture allowing a smaller brain without intelligence penalty - which then sorts the outcome by childbirth and childhood mortality (in places of higher childbirth or childhood mortality, a reduction in those factors would be a greater advantage).
    And so does the leftfield guess of heat tolerance - especially if, as more than one evolutionary biologist has suggested (such as Bernd Heinrich), we evolved as a heat tolerant midday running hunter/scavenger.
    That does not seem to fit the distribution. Some prehistorically larger and more stable populations - China, Mexico - have larger heads, many lightly populated regions ((Australia, central Africa) have smaller heads.
    In carrying capacity, Siberia and Greenland and Alaska and probably Tierra del Fuego have lived at their limit for thousands of years. But they have big brains.

    side: a map of likelihood of bearing fraternal twins would match that brain size map fairly closely (inverted).
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2018
  8. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

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    Small brains = bigger belt buckles?
     
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  9. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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  10. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    Brains got bigger and bigger for a couple million years
    long after bipedalism

    Cranial capacity seems to have topped out with heidelbergensis during the last superinterglacial circa 400,000 years ago-----------------but these guys wuz giants---bigger body bigger brain is a norm.
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2018
  11. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    I guess in the end, human attributes will be a balanced construct designed for optimum required performance while engaged in a great range of living skills. That's natral selection.
    Necessity <--> Sufficiency.
     
  12. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    Has "natural selection" never led to extinction?
     
  13. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    Of course. The extinction of the dinosaurs was an unfortunate function of "natural selection" . Well, maybe not.....

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    I think natural selection is more a random procces of "selecting out", than "selecting in".
    The Silvery Salamander is doomed to die , but continues to survive due our human efforts to save this unique salamander species, which produces no males, only female clones of the mother.

    We truly live on a Cinderella Planet.......2 trillion, quadrillion, quadrillion, quadrillion chemical reactions expressing themselves as our natural world, from salamanders to humans.
     
  14. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    XX?
     
  15. gamelord Registered Senior Member

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    So you are saying, Russians are the smartest race?

    If so why is the AR-15 better than the AK-47?

    If so why is Big Rigs, Over the Road Racing, one of the worst games ever made and the worst programming job ever done, and it was made by Russians. Also, why is the average IQ of Russia 98, and that Japanese have a higher IQ.
     
  16. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    HUH WUT?
    I did not say/post that.
    I would not say/post that.
    Hell dad, I don't even believe that!
    If you are referring to the posted maps, a closer look will reveal that most of Russia is outside the >1450 zone, and is roughly similar to north america.
    The posted maps support the diet hypothesis.
    ....................
    It ain't.
    The "better" judgement would depend on the intended use.
    In many states, it is legal to hunt deer with an ak47. It is usually not legal to hunt deer with an ar15.
    The theory being that the heavier bullet is more lethal.
    (personally I prefer the combination of moa, knock down power and general ballistics of the .300 win mag, or .338 lapua)

    That being said, the ak is less accurate, and heavier by about 20%.
    So if you plan to shoot out beyond 100 yards, and don't want to lug a heavy weapon about, the ak comes in second.
    .....................
    Is the last a reference to a video game?
     
  17. gamelord Registered Senior Member

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    That picture looks very close filled to Russia to me. I didn't say it was exactly the same Border as Russia, but close. According to the map, Russians should have the world's biggest cranial capacity.

    My reference was to Big Rig's Over the Road Racing, which is a Russia-made game, famously known for its atrocious gameplay and sheer programming ineptitude.
     
  18. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    If you talk about genes, the Silvery Salamanders are only female and while they do mate with males of different salamander families, they reject the sperm of all male Salamanders.
    It seems that the act of mating itself triggers cell division in the female , who has a double strand of her own genes and therefore gives birth to perfect clones.
     
  19. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    My 1st lover teased that X was normal in that almost everyone had one, whereas y was not---ergo all men were mutants.
     
  20. RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    okay gene-assess(ponders question of speciation of size)

    how does protien type & amount(matched with the co-component vitamins & minerals) through childhood effect neural density ?

    someones needs to answer that question and show some working examples before this subject really gets into 1st gear.

    is neural density geneticaly bound as a pre birth absolute ?

    ... generic, as male patriarchal dogma and culture gained hold, larger women would be not breeded weith larger males.
    larger males would choose to breed with smaler females and thus higher number of infant natal mortality etc....

    is anyone going to do an actual scientific over view of the real process and situation with surrounding perripheral cultural shifts etc? ?

    the discovery of crop rotation & agriculture of grains probably resulted in a mass starvation of meat from normal diets.
    anyone studying that ?
     
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  21. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    Not absolutely. Although genetically governed, it requires some developmental resources and responds to feedback - the brain grows during childhood, adding and pruning neurons within a volume and "fold" architecture also developmentally influenced. Malnutrition and suboptimal diet, stress, disease, etc, have their effects.
    There is some evidence that the brain is protected to a degree - the body is sacrificed to maintain brain development - but not perfectly.
    Yes. And some findings so far: The early stages of agricultural life have been shown to be associated with stunting, shorter adult lifespans, and various skeletal signs of disease (bad teeth, for one). Smaller cranial volumes come with that territory.
     
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  22. parmalee peripatetic artisan Valued Senior Member

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    Also coincident with the emergence of more heirarchical and patriarchal societies.
     
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  23. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    No, it is the opposite. To be selected for survival (regardless of method) does not mean to be out-selected..

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    Natural disasters have been responsible for the extinction of many species...

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    Last edited: Sep 20, 2018

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