RE: Our brains got bigger because of starvation
June 30, 2014 at 1:02 pm
(This post was last modified: June 30, 2014 at 1:06 pm by Anomalocaris.)
If the marginal benefit conferred by a bigger brain in acquiring calories is greater than the marginal calorie requirements of the bigger brain, than bigger brain, despite its calory requirement, would be of survival benefit in times of scarce calorie supply.
Btw, humans have well below average overall rate of metabolism compared to other large mammals of comparable body size and mass. So it seems reasonable to suppose some time on our primate evolution path, there was great selective pressure to reduce calorie intakes - ie cutting down on calorie intake conferred greater benefit than any profitable use we could put additional calories to. So that seem to run against the theory of survival benefit of bigger brains outweigh its calorie demand.
Btw, humans have well below average overall rate of metabolism compared to other large mammals of comparable body size and mass. So it seems reasonable to suppose some time on our primate evolution path, there was great selective pressure to reduce calorie intakes - ie cutting down on calorie intake conferred greater benefit than any profitable use we could put additional calories to. So that seem to run against the theory of survival benefit of bigger brains outweigh its calorie demand.
