• The modern human brain is the largest and most complex of any living primate. As you will learn in this activity, it is also larger than the brains of our ancient human ancestors. What does brain size have to do with our biology?

Ask An Anthropologist

Ask An Anthropologist is an educational resource for students, teachers, parents, and life-long learners. We encourage anyone interested in anthropology to make use of its content.

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Becoming human brings together interactive multimedia, research and scholarship to promote greater understanding of the course of human evolution.

Hand made

Hand Made

When you put on the mitts and try to build a structure, you will get a sense of how hard it would be to do things that we do every day if our hands were shaped differently.
Link to Primate family tree

Our Primate Heritage

As humans, we have a place on the primate family tree. We can find it by studying other primates and comparing their traits to our own.
Learn about William Kimbel and the brainy branch of human evolution

The Brainy Branch

Our species, Homo sapiens, are incredibly unique among the species on Earth today.

Tales of Teeth - photo of ancient tooth

The Tales of Teeth

You are sitting in a dark movie theater. You are trying to enjoy the movie, but you keep thinking about a pesky piece of popcorn stuck between your molars, the back teeth. After fumbling for a toothpick in your pocket, you dislodge the popcorn.