A long childhood is of advantage

Synchrotron reveals human children outpaced Neanderthals by slowing down

November 15, 2010

While it may seem like kids grow up too fast, evolutionary anthropologists see things differently. Human childhood is considerably longer than chimpanzees, our closest-living ape relatives. A multinational team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Harvard University and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility found a similar pattern when human kids are compared to Neanderthals.

Modern humans are the slowest to the finish line, stretching out their maturation, which may have given them a unique evolutionary advantage (PNAS, November 15, 2010).

Compared to humans, non-human primate life history is marked by a shorter gestation period, faster post-natal maturation rates, younger age at first reproduction, shorter post-reproductive period, and a shorter overall lifespan. For example, chimpanzees reach reproductive maturity several years before humans, bearing their first offspring by age 13, in contrast to the human average of 19.

 "The slow development in children is directly related to the emergence of human social and cultural complexity", says Jean-Jacques Hublin, director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) in Leipzig, Germany. "It allows a long maturation of the brain and an extended education period" he explains.

 The Neanderthal pattern appears to be intermediate between early members of our genus (e.g., Homo erectus) and living people, suggesting that the characteristically slow development and long childhood is a recent condition unique to our own species. This extended period of maturation may facilitate additional learning and complex cognition, possibly giving early Homo sapiens a competitive advantage over their contemporaneous Neanderthal cousins.

Reference:
 http://www.mpg.de/617475/pressRelease20101111