Study finds human ancestors grew larger in later evolutionary leap (opens in new tab)

A new study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences challenges the idea that human ancestors steadily became larger over millions of years. It found that the largest increase in body size came around 2 million to 2.5 million years ago, with the appearance of Homo rudolfensis or Homo erectus/ergaster. The analysis covered 386 fossil specimens across about 2.5 million years and concluded that early hominins such as Australopithecus averaged roughly 40 kg, whil...