University of Reading Nov 27 2024 Modern humans, Neanderthals, and other recent relatives on our human family tree evolved bigger brains much more rapidly than earlier species, a new study of human brain evolution has found.  The study, published today (Tuesday, 26 November) in the journal PNAS , overturns long-standing ideas about human brain evolution. Scientists from the University of Reading, the University of Oxford and Durham University found that brain size increased gradually within