Extra gene drove instant leap in human brain evolution

Thursday, May 3, 2012 - 22:30 in Biology & Nature

A partial, duplicate copy of a gene appears to be responsible for the critical features of the human brain that distinguish us from our closest primate kin. The momentous gene duplication event occurred about two or three million years ago, at a critical transition in the evolution of the human lineage, according to a pair of new studies.

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