Practice question · Select all that apply
What plausibly paid the energy bill for a brain that burns ~20% of resting metabolism?
Hints
- The candidates concern diet, processing and social pressure.
- Reduced activity would not supply extra energy.
Show the answer
- A. Meat and marrow, dense calories unlocked by stone tools
- B. Social complexity driving an arms race in mind-reading
- C. Cooking, which predigests food and lets the gut shrink
Why
The brain is 2% of body weight and eats a fifth of resting energy. Marrow, fire, and the social arms race are the leading candidates, and note our guts are small for a primate our size, exactly as the cooking hypothesis predicts.
Practise Human Evolution and Hominization
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