Homo Paedens? Did Kids Invent the Human Species?

Abstract

Abstract The evolution of development (“evo-devo”) has become a central concern in both evolutionary and developmental research, and human immaturity is no less a proper focus for evolutionary analysis than that of other species-if anything, it is more so. Two new books by David F. Bjorklund, a founder of evolutionary developmental psychology, summarize what we know now and propose that children invented our species. Due to the new phenomenon of partly heritable epigenetic modification of genes and the old one of the Baldwin Effect (by which plasticity leads to new selective forces on genes), this claim must be at least partly true. The inherent plasticity of children’s behavior, including play, accelerated the evolution of humanity as instantiated in the human brain. Evolution cannot be understood without extensive reference to development, and nothing in childhood makes sense except in the light of evolution.