The pace of human physical development is slower than that of other primates, meaning that it takes us longer to move from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Scientists have long believed that this is related somehow to the complex nature and large size of the human brain, which takes more time to mature in harmony with the human body. There are questions about how early the ancestors of modern humans (Homo sapiens) started physically maturing at a delayed rate, in comparison to their primate cousins. In a new study just published in the journal Nature, a team of European scientists presents evidence that suggests delayed growth in the human evolutionary line first appeared in approximately two million BC, or at least 500,000 years earlier than previously believed. “We show that the first evolutionary steps towards an extended growth phase occurred in the genus Homo at least 1.77 million years ago, before any substantial increase in brain size,” the study authors wrote in their Nature article. The intriguing new discovery is significant, because it does not support the idea that human physical growth slowed in conjunction with increased development in the brain, at least not in the earliest stage of the process. Read moreSection: NewsEvolution & Human OriginsHuman OriginsScienceRead Later