Are Humans Just Infantile?

Is it true that we humans resemble baby chimps? Neoteny, or the preservation of juvenile characteristics in adults may be why humans are so different from chimpanzees despite the fact that we share close to 99% DNA. It is not the genes that we have, but how those genes are expressed which may differ.

 

Scientist Mehmet Somel from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has found that a small group of nerve cells are delayed in their development in humans compared to chimpanzees. This delay also occurs in other areas of human development resulting in mature adults retaining juvenile features. Human adults, you see, share some of the characteristics of young chimps, like flat faces and distribution of hair.

Philipp Khaitovich, also of the Max Planck Institute, has also noted these development delays in humans. He points out how human sexual maturation takes place about five years later than chimps and how teeth also erupt later. When gene expression was also compared between humans, chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys, in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain involved in memory. It was found that about 40% of these genes were expressed later in humans.

The evolution of dogs from wolves is also an example of neoteny, as dogs, like baby wolves, are more social. Also, wolves don't generally bark, but their baby offspring do. Both dogs and humans have also retained a playful friendliness, which is probably due to neoteny.

We Love Cuteness

We not only love neoteny in other animals, but also in the cute TV characters and toys around us. Consider animé "cuteness", Bambi, Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh. Just to name a few.

It seems that we just love things that resemble babies (neotinized) and this is why most people fail to get excited about crocodiles or spiders and yet love dolphins and domestic rabbits. Cute it seems, wins the day!

Physical anthropologist Barry Bogin considers Betty Boop to be an example of neoteny.

"The cartoon of Betty Boop illustrates some human features which are sometimes labeled as neotenous, such as a large head, short arms and legs relative to total height, and clumsy, child–like movements." — Barry Bogin.


Books To Read

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, by Perre Christin - a French comic series.