Evolution: more genomic evidence of pre-planning Part One (Evolution)

by David Turell , Saturday, April 10, 2021, 19:18 (1321 days ago) @ dhw

QUOTE: We hypothesize that this pattern reflects interdependent processes of brain-culture coevolution, where cultural innovation triggered changes in cortical interconnectivity and ultimately in external frontal lobe topography. [dhw’s bold] On the other hand, the cerebral innovations that characterize Homo at ~1.5 Ma might have constituted the foundations of the “language-ready” brain of later Homo species. [David’s bold]

dhw: You could hardly have a clearer confirmation of the process I have been describing. The brain did not expand or complexify in advance of innovation: the changes were triggered by innovation. And the brain changes would have progressively led to the language-ready brain – not just of sapiens but of earlier homos, as confirmed here:

DAVID: But you skip over the language ready comment, my bold which makes my point.

dhw: Your point has always been that major changes were necessary to mouth, lips, larynx and the vocal organs to allow for sapiens speech. The bold emphasizes that 1.5 million years ago the cerebral innovations might have constituted the foundations of our language-ready brain. In other words, there was no great leap from zilch to sapiens speech, but a gradual refinement of existing structures.

You cannot denigrate my point that the preparatory mechanism was in place 1.5 million years ago.

QUOTE: "Terrence Deacon proposed that the frontal lobe is the developmental and cognitive key to human language ability. If so, frontal lobe expansion implies that hominid language abilities may be quite old, perhaps predating the toolmaking abilities that appear in stone artifacts at least 2.4 million years old.

DAVID: The bold in this quote again supports my point, enlarged and complex, but waiting to be used.

dhw: They were NOT as enlarged and as complex as ours – they laid the foundations! Please read the articles you quote: “Increases in the frontal lobe appear in Australopithecus africanus and all subsequent hominid brains.” Africanus brain capacity was about 400-500 cc. Now all of a sudden you think the mechanism for sapiens language was waiting to be used!
(Continued in Part Two)

I know what I read and I am forced to reinterpret the Darwinian overlay. It is obvious there was early preparation.