Follow your nose: Compared to Neanderthals, modern humans have a better sense of smell
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 - 11:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
High-tech medical imaging techniques were recently used to access internal structures of fossil human skulls. Researchers used sophisticated 3-D methods to quantify the shape of the basal brain as reflected in the morphology of the skeletal cranial base. Their findings reveal that the human temporal lobes, involved in language, memory and social functions as well as the olfactory bulbs are relatively larger in Homo sapiens than in Neanderthals.