Cognitive Evolution Rates in Hominins and Chimpanzees, Six Million Year Range

2.6 MB of data includes archaeological evidence and cross-national survey data used to construct a cognitive metric and estimate evolutionary rates over six million years. The dataset, authored by Robert Shuler and last updated in April 2026, compares hominin cognitive evolution rates to Chimpanzees. Results suggest autocatalytic selection once culture began storing reasoning, potentially outpacing biological change.

Use Cases

• Modeling cognitive evolution rates based on archaeological evidence spanning six million years.
• Analyzing sexual selection (mating choice) on cognition using cross-national survey data.
• Investigating the relationship between leadership hierarchies and Y-chromosome bottleneck events.
• Studying the impact of memetic pressure and specialization on demographic population decline.

Strengths

• Includes archaeological evidence spanning six million years of hominin evolution.
• Utilizes cross-national survey data to assess sexual selection.
• Provides a cognitive metric for comparing evolutionary rates between hominins and Chimpanzees.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The absolute values of estimates are described as not important, focusing only on relative rates.

Provenance

Source

Robert Shuler via figshare.

Collection Method

Constructed from archaeological evidence and cross-national survey data.

Time Range

Six million years of hominin evolution.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-24 03:25:56; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Cross-national survey data suggests global scope; specific regions unknown.