# Dark winters 'led to bigger human brains and eyeballs

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-winters-led-to-bigger-human-brains-and-eyeballs/590540>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 27, 2011, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-winters-led-to-bigger-human-brains-and-eyeballs/590540 "2011-07-27T21:02:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-winters-led-to-bigger-human-brains-and-eyeballs/590540/1 "2011-07-27T21:02:15Z")

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They’re doing Fascinating research on skulls of people. I often wish that I had majored in Anthropology. I’m jealous of the work and research these people are doing. I’d love to read more on this study and the work this group is doing.

> **[Dark winters 'led to bigger human brains and eyeballs'](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14279729)**
>
> A study of human skulls suggests humans living at high latitude evolved bigger eyes and brains to see in poor light.

> [@](#):
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> The scientists measured the eye sockets and brain volumes of 55 skulls from 12 populations across the world, and plotted the results against latitude.
> 
> Lead author Eiluned Pearce told BBC News: “We found a positive relationship between absolute latitude and both eye socket size and cranial capacity.”

> [@](#):
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> "We found that as light levels decrease, humans are getting bigger eye sockets, which suggests that their eyeballs are getting bigger.  
> "They are also getting bigger brains, because we found this increase in cranial capacity as well.
> 
> “In the paper, we argue that having bigger brains doesn’t mean that high-latitude humans are necessarily smarter. It’s just they need bigger eyes and brains to be able to see well where they live.”

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**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-winters-led-to-bigger-human-brains-and-eyeballs/590540/2 "2011-07-27T21:07:19Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> “In the paper, we argue that having bigger brains doesn’t mean that high-latitude humans are necessarily smarter. It’s just they need bigger eyes and brains to be able to see well where they live.”

Hmmm. Reminds me of how I’ve read that domestic cats have smaller brains and inferior nightvision compared to their wild ancestors.

I pretty much guarantee though that we’ll see this used as support for claims that “northern (aka white) people are smarter!”

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**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-winters-led-to-bigger-human-brains-and-eyeballs/590540/3 "2011-07-27T22:10:24Z")

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So we are turning into [morlocks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morlock) … :eek:

Well, better morlock than [eloi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eloi). Do humans taste like chicken? 😕

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**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-winters-led-to-bigger-human-brains-and-eyeballs/590540/4 "2011-07-28T06:44:01Z")

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Humans are supposed to taste like pork.