(CNN) Researchers utilizing a new approach to examine the cognitive capabilities of species came across a surprising finding: Our evolutionary ancestor, Australopithecus, may have been less smart than modern-day great apes.
It has actually long been theorized that a larger brain indicates greater cognitive capability, which is usually defined as an individual'' s overall mental ability and how they reason, fix problems, plan, believe in the abstract, and learn from life experiences.
If this held true, human beings would have superior cognitive power, followed in the distance by Australopithecines (the pre-human group that the famously fossilized Lucy belongs to) and gorillas, with chimpanzees and orangutans bringing up the back of the primate species.
It has actually long been theorized that a larger brain indicates greater cognitive capability, which is usually defined as an individual'' s overall mental ability and how they reason, fix problems, plan, believe in the abstract, and learn from life experiences.
If this held true, human beings would have superior cognitive power, followed in the distance by Australopithecines (the pre-human group that the famously fossilized Lucy belongs to) and gorillas, with chimpanzees and orangutans bringing up the back of the primate species.
This might align with what we observe to be true about our own cognitive abilities, however, when it concerns those of the other species, things are far less specific.
Researcher Roger Seymour, who led the study at the University of Adelaide's School of Biological Sciences in Australia, assumed that a various set of physiological qualities might, in fact, offer ideas to the cognitive capabilities of species, both previous and present.
