Human puberty is later than previously thought.
As we all know, human growth takes 18 to 20 years, while other primates, such as chimpanzees or gorillas, get married at the age of eleven or twelve. This difference in growth and development is mainly manifested in human adolescence. But in the process of human evolution, in which historical stage did adolescence first appear? This problem has been puzzling archaeologists and paleoanthropologists. A paper published in the recently published journal Nature pointed out that human adolescence appeared much later than previously thought by the scientific community.
The evolution of early humans went through several stages: homo habilis, homo erectus and homo sapiens. They lived 6.5438+0.6 million-2.2 million years ago, 800,000-2 million years ago and 40,000-300,000 years ago respectively. Because Homo erectus is close to modern people in appearance, but its brain capacity is small, the scientific community speculates that the development process of Homo erectus may be similar to that of human beings, which means that scientists believe that human ancestors had puberty 800,000 years ago. However, this report, which was completed by researchers from many universities in Britain and America, believes that the appearance of adolescence is quite "modern" in the history of human evolution, and it is likely that it first appeared in Neanderthals who lived 300,000 years ago. On the other hand, Homo erectus developed and grew more like an ape. They skip puberty, go directly from children to adults, and fully mature around 14 years old. A paleoanthropologist joked that it was much easier to be a parent then than it is now.
As we all know, "adolescent" children often have mood swings and rebellious behaviors, which makes parents and teachers have a headache. But in sharp contrast, no primate has "puberty" like human beings, so it takes much less time to "grow up" than human beings. From the evolutionary history of mankind, it only takes 12 years for apes to enter adulthood after birth, while it takes 18-20 years for modern people.
Anthropologists at the University of London in the United Kingdom have studied the fossils of human ancestors about 6.5438+0 million to 4 million years ago. Experts focused on the enamel on the surface of teeth (because the enamel on teeth records a person's growth and development like tree rings), and finally confirmed that there was no "puberty" in early humans, even on the eve when human ancestors began to walk upright about 6,543,800 years ago. Experts have found more and more evidence that the "adolescence" of modern humans finally appeared after the appearance of "Homo erectus", that is, the "size" of human ancestors' bodies and brains was close to that of modern humans. This may also indicate that human ancestors after Homo erectus had puberty in order to have a longer time to learn more knowledge and skills and learn to use more complicated tools than before. In other words, "adolescence" is gradually formed to help human beings cope with the increasingly complex and even sinister "life".