Counterintuitive Facts (81): Why Are Humans the Least 'Adult Looking' Animal on Earth?
PremiumNeoteny: Our weakness, curiosity and plasticity are precisely why we rule the Earth
I. Compare a newborn foal and a human baby. A foal can stand and run hours after birth. Its brain development is nearly complete. Instincts are fixed. This is called Precocial.
II. Human babies? Complete waste at birth. Soft head. Soft bones. Can't walk. Can't eat. Can't even turn over. Takes until age 1 to barely walk. Brain isn't fully developed until 18. Prefrontal cortex doesn't fully mature until 25. This is called Altricial. Logically, such a "weak" species should have been eaten by tigers long ago.
III. But humans not only didn't go extinct. They ruled the Earth through Neoteny. Neoteny means: Retaining juvenile characteristics into adulthood. Our hairless skin. Other primates only have hairless babies. Our big heads, flat faces. These are fetal characteristics.
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