New study finds today’s gorillas may be smarter than human ‘ancestors’ of three million years ago

Abstract

Research led by Professor Roger Seymour at the University of Adelaide, in collaboration with Dr Edward Snelling from the University of Pretoria’s Department of Anatomy and Physiology in the Faculty of Veterinary Science; Prince Chikezie of the Brain Function Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits); and Dr Bernhard Zipfel (Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits), reveals a significantly higher rate of blood flow to the cognitive part of the brain of living great apes compared to Australopithecus.