The brain size of Homo erectus, Homo habilis, Australopithecus, and other apes -
Does size really matter?

Of all the primates that God created we, Homo sapiens have the largest brain. God created many varieties of apes (some like Homo habilis, Homo erectus, etc. are now extinct) with varying brain sizes.

Brain size has been used to support the idea that small chimp sized creatures called Australopithecines evolved into larger brained Homo habilis, Homo erectus etc.

What the evolutionist has failed to understand is that one extinct ape having a larger brain than another extinct ape, does not mean that one evolved into the other.

As with any fact (ie: brain size), it must be interpreted.

You must allow the possibility that the framework (evolution) in which you are presented a fact is flawed, while the fact itself (brain size) is true.

There is always room for more than one interpretation of facts.

If Australopithecus has a larger brain than a chimpanzee, does that mean it is evolving towards human status? Does that mean that Australopithecus was more highly evolved? Or does it simply mean it had a larger brain.

Could the evidence also be interpreted another way? Such as Australopithecus degenerated into its present form (the chimp), and one of the signs of degeneration is the smaller brain size.

The same can be said of us and Neanderthal. Neanderthal had a larger brain. This in and of itself does not mean that it is more intelligent, but it could. We must look at how the brain is wired.

We must distinquish between fact, and inference.

Does having a big brain make you human?

Homo erectus is a complex ape that is now extinct. It was made on day 6 with the other apes to live with man.

Reduced brain size, and intelligence may have begun when Adam sinned. Rather than an instantaneous change, it has been a slow decline over the last few thousand years.

Apes may have had higher mental abilities in the Garden of Eden, than they do now. They may have been able to make more complex tools etc.

I don't believe apes ever made music, or buried their dead, but they may have reached a higher level of sophistication than they do today (assumption).

IF the apes in Eden could talk, we would have to ascribe to them greater mental ability than they have today.

In his book "Bones of Contention", Dr. Marvin Lubenow states that the brain size of Homo erectus is evidence that it is fully human.

I disagree.

Dr. Lubenow says that Homo sapiens (modern humans) have a brain size in the range from 700 cc to 2200 cc
("Bones of Contention", M. Lubenow pg. 138)

Lubenow says: "The range of cranial capacities for fossil humans is then in line with the range of cranial capacites for modern humans. Modern humans hava cranial capacity range from about 700 cubic centimeters all the way up to about 2200 cc."

Where does Lubenow get this information? The Homo erectus infants had a smaller brain than modern humans. I believe the 700 cc number he gives (above) is actually the cc. of erectus.

He adds that erectus ranged from 700 cc (Modjokerto infant) to 1200 cc for the largest Peking man skull.

Cranial capacity of Homo erectus

Lets look at some of the skulls of Homo erectus:
(If you do not see a chart below then your browser does not support tables)

As you can see from the chart above, the endocranial volume of Homo erectus is large compared to todays apes. But that is the main point. Homo erectus is like no other ape alive today. The large (for an ape) brain does not mean that Homo erectus is human.

Donald Johanson says: "With a cranial capacity of 860 cubic centimeters, Pithecanthropus [Homo erectus] was certainly no mental giant, but its brain was still twice that of some living human beings-microcephalics-who walked upright and could perform simple tasks"
(pg 50 "Lucy's child")

In the book "Scientific Creationism" the author states that: "Some may question the true humanness of Homo erectus on the basis of his small brain size (900-1100 cc)- However, that is definitely within the range of brain size of modern man, though on the low end of the scale. Furthermore, there is no necessary correlation of brain size with intelligence."
("Scientific Creationism" pg 174-175, 1974)

Regarding the Nariokotome (see pg 12 "Wisdom of the bones" for pronounciation) Turkana child (Homo erectus KNM-WT 15000) Walker says:
"By human standards, he had the height of a fifteen-year-old with the brain [size] of a one-year-old, who might normally stand about two feet tall instead of the [Turkana] boys five feet three inches"
(Alan Walker: "The Wisdom of the Bones", pg 212)

For those who argue erectus must be human because of its human body proportions, and similarities to body proportions of people today I would like to point out that this does not make erectus human either.

A dog and a cat have similar structures, and similar body proportions, but there are also many differences that cleary seperate the two.

"He was an animal as big as a human, who must have looked rather like a human [in stature], but he did not have our brains and almost certainly did not act like a human"
(Alan Walker: "The Wisdom of the Bones", pg 212-213)

Are these measurements correct?

The fact remains that an animal can have a similar brain size to humans, and still not be a human.

Ironically Dr. Lubenow says himself that it is the organization of the brain, not the size of the brain that counts. He says this about another species however, and does not take this into consideration when examining Homo erectus.

Others have made the same mistake:
"What distinguishes humans from other animals is the size of the brain..."
("1001 things everyone should know about science" by James Trefil pg 65-66)

Trefil is wrong in many ways. Man is not an animal. God sets man apart from the animals, giving him dominion over them. Man is also different in his spiritual nature, being able to fellowship with the God who created him.

Man was made in the "image of God", and in his likeness.

Adam was shown all the animals God had created, some more human like than others, but yet there was found "no help meet for him" (Genesis 2:20)

There are no such things as "ape-men". But there were complex apes in the Garden of Eden. Some apes were more humanlike than others.

Lubenow rejects notion that erectus is an ape - based on its brain size

On June 26 2000 I talked with Dr. Lubenow. He told me that his major objection to erectus being non human is its large brain. I told him all the reasons I believed that Homo erectus is non-human, and he said: "Then you would have a large brained primate walking around!".

What Dr. Lubenow fails to see is that he is not allowing himself to examine the fossils of Homo erectus objectively merely because erectus has a large brain. (see my section on the foramen magnum and bipedaility.)

It is a mistake for Lubenow and others to insist that Homo erectus is human merely because it had a large brain and walked upright.

"Yet brain size could not by itself be considered proof of membership of a particular species."
(Pg. 190 Ian Tattersall "The Fossil Trail", speaking of erectus.)

Homo erectus has a smaller brain than humans

Homo erectus did not have as big of a brain as modern humans do. It is much smaller.

"...the adult Homo erectus brain was much smaller than a modern human's. The mean cranial capacity for Javanes Homo erectus, 900 cc, is about the size of a modern four-year-old child's brain, an average adult modern human brain measures more than 1, 400 cc." (pg 196 "Ancestors - In search of Human origins" by Donald Johanson, Lenora Johanson, Blake Edgar. Villard Books New York, 1994)

The brain of erectus is even smaller yet when compared to the fully human Neanderthal average of 1,500 cc (pg 196, "Ancestors- In search of Human Origins)

Neanderthals were Adam and his descendants. They lived with Homo erectus.

"..the Nariokotome boy's brain, if he had reached adulthood, would have been about 900 cc, a much bigger size than the customary rate of brain growth in an ape would have produced. Similarly, projecting backward, his brain at birth would have been too big to fit through his mother's narrow birth canal if the erectus species ahd followed the apelike pattern of brain growth development seen in the australopithecines. Judging from the size of the opening in the pelvis for the birth canal (identifical between males and females in hominids), a newborn Homo erectus most likely had a brain that weighed around 7 ounces."
(pg 195 "Ancestors - In search of Human origins" by Donald Johanson, Lenora Johanson, Blake Edgar. Villard Books New York, 1994)

Neanderthals had bigger brains that H. erectus

Since Neanderthals and Homo erectus were contemperaneous if they were both human (as Lubenow claims), then they should have similar cranial capacities.

But Neanderthals have a brain size averaging over 1,500 cc. (pg 196 "Ancestors - In search of Human origins" by Donald Johanson)

The cranial capacity for the Kabwe cranium (Broken Hill, Rhodesian man) is listed as 1,280 cc.
(pg 269, Day, 1993)

Rhodesian man is a diseased human, it is not a member of Homo erectus (see Cuozzo, Buried Alive)

Comparison.

Above we see casts of a human brain, the brain of Homo erectus, and the brain of a chimpanzee.

While the erectus brain is larger than that of other primates that doesn't mean that erectus was human. It just means that it had the largest brain of all the apes.

(Picture source: "History of the Primates" LeGros Clarke, pg. 84)

Pg. 82 gives man a 1350 cc average cc. (“History of the primates: An introduction to the study of fossil man” Fifth edition W. E. LeGros Clark, 1966, University of Chicago Press)

Points out that “..a cranial capacity of 1000 c.c. or even less, do occasionally occur as extreme normal variations in modern Man.” (Pg. 82“History of the primates: An introduction to the study of fossil man” Fifth edition W. E. LeGros Clark, 1966, University of Chicago Press)

The organization of the brain.

It is not the size of our brain that makes us human. It is the way the brain works, the way it is wired. It is also the imparting of a spirit that God gave us that makes us human.

The amount of information we can get from the brain of Homo erectus is limited, as we do not have a living member of this species to study. We do have endocasts, which are the fossilized remains of the imprints that the brain has left on the inside of the skull.

Here is a picture of the cast I purchased of the Homo erectus brain "SM 3".

The picture above shows my Homo ergaster skull (KNM-ER 3733) next to the brain cast of "SM 3" (erectus). I have since purchased the braincase that the brain fits into, and will be adding a picture of it, along with some more info soon.

In the mean time lets look at information gathered on other erectus brains.

Ralph Holloway is the Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University. Holloway was featured on the "Discovery" program: "Humans - who are we?". In this, Holloway points out that in Homo erectus "The two hemispheres are not symmetrical, that is to say the left one in the back portion is slightly larger. And it’s slightly larger on the right on the lateral side."

Holloway believes that this shows a preference to right handedness, and is the first shown in the fossil record.

I asked Dr. Holloway what the major difference in the brain of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens was. He responded:

"Hard to tell, since one can't see the whole morphology such as the different convolutions of the cerebral cortex. Aside from size, though, the major difference seems to be that there is more asymmetry in the cerebral hemispheres in modern sapiens."
(personal correspondance)

I will be adding more info from Alan Walkers book on the Nariokotome skeleton, and the brain cast made from it.

Homo erectus: The thinking machine

Many anthropologist have called the australopithecines "eating machines" because of their dentition. Likewise because Homo erectus had a larger brain than other apes, it has sometimes been called "the thinking machine"

The chart below is under construction

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Do we only use 10 percent of our brain? (to be answered soon)

If you have any questions on Creation, Evolution, or just want to say "Hi" please feel free to email me.

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