Is our brain bigger than that of dinosaurs?

Dinosaurs had small brains, much smaller than the human brain. The dinosaur brain often weighed only a thousandth of their huge body mass. An adult human brain is about one-fifth of its body mass, on an average around 1400 g. Since the early hominid creatures, whose skeletons were found in Africa, the brain mass of humans has increased threefold. In comparison, the size of the brains of other mammals has hardly changed in the course of millions of years.

Who were the Neanderthals?

The Neanderthals were people who lived 130,000 – 30,000 years ago, but then died out due to unknown reasons, One theory is that other lines of humans were stronger and eliminated them. The Neanderthals were about 1.70 m tall, had a heavily build body and were very powerful. They needed this power and strength to hunt woolly mammoths and rhinoceros with their home-mad spears and knives. They made clothes of animals skins, lived in caves, and used fire. Their name is derived from the place where their remains were found, the Neander valley near Dusseldorf.

What is so special about our thumb?

Unlike other animals, our thumb is opposable, which means that it has free movement and can be placed opposite the fingers of the same hand. This helps us to grip things securely and lets us do delicate jobs like threading a needle. Our grooved fingertips prevent smooth things from slipping away. This movement of the hand, combined with the freely moving shoulder joint and the upright posture, gave our ancestors a development advantage: tools or weapons could be used for a specific purpose with great power.