• Question: Why did we evolve and become smarter than other species?

    Asked by asandhu to Jemma, John, Katie, Lisa on 22 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by b3nurwin.
    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 22 Jun 2012:

      Hi @asandhu

      That’s a brilliant question.

      There are lots of theories for this, but the one I find most persuasive is that we became bi-petal at some point in out evolution (we started walking on two feet). Now other species do this, but not exclusively. The reason this is so important is it freed up our hands to explore the world around us. These became incredibly sensitive to touch, heat, pain etc and the brain needed to develop to process all this extra information. This simply didn’t hapen in other species. Even the great apes, our closest relatives, still use their hands to get about.

      Jemma

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