Brain power, team work helped humans rule the world

Ourancestors used brain power, innovation and teamwork to dominate the planet,scholars in the US discussing how the humans colonized the globesuggestedWhy humans rose to the top the world and eventuallycame to rule it has been a matter curiosity for scientistsThe study ofour human nature includes a variety of fields ranging from anthropology,primatology, cognitive science and psychology to paleontology, archaeology,evolutionary biology and geneticsRepresentatives of each of.thesedisciplines came together on February 19-22 at a workshop, 'Origins of HumanUniqueness and Behavioral Modernity,' staged by Arizona State University'sOrigins Project to discuss recent advances in their respectivefields.Led by ASU professors anthropologist Kim Hill andpaleoanthropologist Curtis Marean, co-organizers of the event, the panel ofscientists agreed to adopt a working definition that human uniqueness is the'underlying capacity to produce complexity,' and to think of behaviouralmodernity as 'the expression' of those capacitiesAccording to Hilland Marean, the expression of capacities can be summed up, namely, asexceptional cognition, culture and cooperation Each of the three C's was atopic of.focus for the scientists. One of their goals at the conference was toidentify specific markers of these expressions, and then use them to identifythe emergence of humans within the paleoanthropologicalrecordArchaeologist and paleoanthropologist John Shea of StonyBrook University said the beginning of human cognition, for instance, is theresult of the development of a larger brain, which can be represented byartefacts such as stone tools, weapons or productions that signify greaterabilities for thinking and.innovation, Jean-Jacques Hublin of theMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany said although theadaptation of a larger brain may separate humans from their primate relatives,it also came at a cost of increased fuel requirements. A human brain uses atleast 20 per cent of an individual's resting metabolism, he pointedoutPrimatologist and biological anthropologist Richard Wrangham ofHarvard University said evidence of the use of fire by early humans could beused to mark how they overcame their energy needs, heat helps free up energy bysoftening foods, denaturing their proteins and breaking down toxins, Wranghamproposed, which is why cooking may explain human brain size as well as smallcanine teeth and small guts in.comparison to other primates.Evidenceof coastal adaptation can also mark human activity and a strategy for meetingthe brain's growing energy needs Archaeological excavations along the coastlineof South Africa show that early humans obtained energy-dense foods by adopting adiet of shellfish, which afforded strong nutritional benefits for the brain,Marean suggestedThe researchers also discussed how a bigger brainled to culture, a product of thinking and social learning facilitated bylanguage, creativity and innovation.The passing on of knowledge from generationto generation is metaphorically referred to as a cultural 'ratchet effect,'which creates greater complexity of culture over time.