Homo Erectus Women Had Big-Brained Babies, New Fossil Suggests

The fossilized pelvis of a Homo erectus woman who lived 1.2 million years ago on the banks of an Ethiopian river has been discovered, and while researchers say it casts new light on human evolution, some of their conclusions are challenging previous theories about these early human ancestors. The pelvis reveals a short, squat woman who wasn't built for long-distance running, but also a woman with a wide birth canal to accommodate big-brained infants. Study coauthor Scott Simpson says the pelvis's wide birth canal indicates that hominds' increasing brain size was a driving factor in human evolution.