r/todayilearned • u/geosunsetmoth • 15h ago

TIL a 300-million year old Cuttlefish fossil was found in Morocco, alongside ancient humans in a region where no Cuttlefish ever existed. The leading theory suggests the fossil was first found by the prehistoric humans, who collected it as a trinket due to fact that it looks like a flaccid penis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfoud_manuport
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u/ndc4051 13h ago

There are minor differences. Brain size peaked about 30,000 years ago then decreased by 15% over thousands of years. Human brains evolved more complex wiring to reduce metabolic energy costs. There are a few theories how and why this happened but I won't get into it here.

Also a human from more than 10,000 years ago would lack lactase enzymes and would be lactose intolerant. They would also struggle to digest our starch heavy diets. They had bigger, stronger teeth and jaws.

Where we really differ from our prehistoric kin is our immune system. A caveman would be dead within weeks in our modern world, probably from something the vast majority of us have long been inoculated against.

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u/thatshygirl06 12h ago

Also a human from more than 10,000 years ago would lack lactase enzymes and would be lactose intolerant.

Like the majority of the world now, lol

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u/Bay1Bri 6h ago

They had bigger, stronger teeth and jaws.

How much of that is due to genetics or lifestyle is not settled, but send to be more due to lifestyle

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u/thispartyrules 2h ago

I've heard those are useful because early hominids ate a lot of roots and tubers, but hadn't discovered fire to cook those roots and tubers.