Brain Power Comes From Evolved Hunting Skills

Texas native and deer hunter Josh Beckett pitches for the Los Angeles Dodgers—photo courtesy Keith Allison Almost two million years ago, human ancestors, for the first time, learned how to hunt animals by throwing stones or sticks and high speeds. This crucial skill was essential to convert early humans into hunter-gatherers, scientists have found, studying the evolution of throwing. Evolution of throwing helped human ancestors become part-time carnivores, paving the way for a host of later adaptations, including increases in brain size and migration out of Africa. In the new research—published in “Nature”—scientists showed humans were able to generate these high speeds primarily by storing and releasing elastic energy in the ligaments and tendons that cross the shoulder. Read more about it here.