PALEONTOLOGY The brains of Neanderthals were as big as modern humans’, indicating that our evolutionary relatives were smarter than literature and television’s depictions would lead us to believe. New research does show, however, that the human brain’s development during the first year of life is different from that of both Neanderthals and chimpanzees. Like humans, Neanderthals were born with elongated skulls, advantageous for moving through the birth canal. But an analysis by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany demonstrates that, during the first year of life, the human skull assumes a different shape, becoming round and ball-shaped. Certain regions expand, mainly in the parietal lobe at the top of the brain, in the temporal lobes above the ears and in the cerebellum at the bottom of the brain. Neanderthal and chimp brains, on the other hand, stay the same. The expansion of certain parts of the brain in an early developmental stage gives us the ability to integrate sensory information and form abstract representa- tions of the environment in which we live. Scientists think that the evolutionary shift from classic brain development (that of chimps and Neanderthals) to the unique brain development seen in newborn humans could have improved our intellectual capacity, and given us an advantage over Neanderthals.