"Our study shows once again that in the course of evolution, only mammals that live a long time and have enough time to learn were able to develop a large brain and complex fine motor skills including the ability to use tools. In addition, learning takes time and is inefficient, and it is the parents who pay for this until their offspring are independent. The researchers think that the reason for this may be that the larger brains of humans are less well developed at birth. It's mainly because we do not begin learning these skills until much later," says Heldstab. "It's not just because we are learning more complex skills than lemurs or callitrichids, for example. Humans develop fine motor skills later than primatesÄexterity comes at a cost, however: In species with large brains like humans, it takes a long time for infants to learn even the simplest hand and finger movements. A big brain equals great dexterity," says Heldstab. "It is no coincidence that we humans are so good at using our hands and using tools, our large brains made it possible. Large-brained species such as macaques, gorillas or chimpanzees can solve much more complex tasks using their hands than primates with small brains such as lemurs or marmosets. The researchers found, however, big differences in the specific fine motor skills of adults from different primate species. "Our results show that the neural development follows extremely rigid patterns - even in primate species that differ greatly in other respects," says Heldstab. What surprised her was that all species learned their respective manual skills in exactly the same order. She studied 128 young animals in 13 European zoos from birth until the age at which they had reached adult-level dexterity. Sandra Heldstab, an evolutionary biologist in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Zurich, and her colleagues Karin Isler, Caroline Schuppli and Carel van Schaik observed 36 different primate species over a period of more than seven years to try to answer this question. Brain development in primates follows fixed patterns
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