Why is human childhood so unusually long? The answer may lie in baby teeth
The timing of our teeth's eruption reveals how humans evolved long childhoods to support brain development and complex social skills.
Brenna R. Hassett, PhD, is a biological anthropologist and archaeologist at the University of Central Lancashire and a scientific associate at the Natural History Museum, London. In addition to researching the effects of changing human lifestyles on the human skeleton and teeth in the past, she writes for a more general audience about evolution and archaeology, including the Times (UK) top 10 science book of 2016 Built on Bones: 15,000 Years of Urban Life and Death, and her most recent book, Growing Up Human: The Evolution of Childhood. She is also a co-founder of TrowelBlazers, an activist archive celebrating the achievements of women in the “digging” sciences.
The timing of our teeth's eruption reveals how humans evolved long childhoods to support brain development and complex social skills.
Humans, like many animals, spend a lot of time playing, an activity that may develop essential skills and foster cooperation,...