XUJIAYAO HOMINID POSSESSED THE LARGEST KNOWN BRAIN IN THE MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE

Xujiayao hominid’s brain is biggest known brain

Hong Ao et. al., Journal of Human Evolution, Aug 2024

• “It is the largest big-headed hominin ever in the Middle Pleistocene,” said Wu Xiujie,

• Xujiayao hominid’s brain was slightly smaller than that of its close relative “Xuchang Man,” estimated at about 1,800 cubic centimeters, but the former lived approximately 60,000 years earlier than the latter.

• The prehistoric human, Neanderthals, and Denisovans were contemporaries, but it was unique in that a fossil known as the Xujiayao juvenile was found by a previous study — which showed they had teeth like that of modern humans.

• Scientists once presumed that the brain size of ancient humans in the Old Stone Age, from Australopithecus through Homo Habilis to Homo Erectus, grew gradually bigger with time.

• But recent studies have put paid to this hypothesis since the “Flores Man” in Indonesia living 100,000 to 50,000 years ago was found to have only a brain about 400 cubic centimeters while the head of “Xuchang Man” was over four times big.