Climate change may have propelled the evolution of humanity forward by giving humanity’s ancient ancestors bigger brains, a new study has suggested.

Researchers from Washington University in St Louis found increases in the brain sizes of ancient hominins (humanity’s ancestors) aligned with glacial phases more than 600,000 years ago.

The team developed a computer simulation to mathematically show how new mating habits and ‘parental cooperation’ needed to survive during an inhospitable Ice Age would have ‘sped up’ the evolution of the human brain.

The simulation suggested that hominins sought mates similar to themselves due to the rising importance of necessities like fire, food, and shelter to survive the deadly cold. 

The new mating habits, which the researchers call ‘positive assortative mating,’ could have also helped advance critical human abilities — like the development of language-based communication and fire.

Plus, greater ingenuity and a willingness to cooperate between parents, according to their study, would have vastly helped humanity’s ancestors prevent cold-related deaths, including hypothermia.

‘It has long been argued that climate change was an important driver of hominin evolution, with considerable attention given to glacial phases,’ according to the new study’s lead author, economist Bruce Petersen.

‘In The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, Charles Darwin placed great emphasis on sexual selection for hominin evolution,’ Petersen said. 

‘However, its role as an evolutionary force was then largely ignored for over a century.’

In other words, an Ice Age truce in the war between the sexes improved the chances for intelligent parents who got along with each other and taught their children well. 

Petersen used anthropological and climate data to develop the simulation and found that ‘periods of severe climate change’ beginning with a major glacial freeze 676,000 to 621,000 years ago would have led to a period of increased sexual pickiness.

This ‘Ice Age within an Ice Age,’ dubbed MIS 16 after the marine isotopes used to identify it, would have led to what Petersen calls ‘positive assortative mating.’

‘This means that mates are less specialized,’ Petersen said, ‘in part because complementarities arise only when mates work together.’  

‘An efficient mating system surely became ever more important with the lengthening of offspring dependency and the start of the severe glacial phases,’ he noted.

The research team’s simulation pitted three categories of early men against each other: first, a group that was the most intelligent but physically weak, a second ‘intermediate’ group and lastly, a third that was the strongest but least intelligent.

Their mathematical models found that the positive assortative mating of pairs from the first category not only produced the fittest offspring — but was often the only pairing with enough children for their genes to survive the brutal glacial freeze.

‘Many scientists have argued that the enormous advantages of both language and fire would have placed strong selective pressures on these behaviors,’ Petersen said.

Using economics models, Petersen described these as ‘home-produced family public goods’ which were ‘demanding to produce’ and included fire, language, shelter, and child training.  

The new research also suggests that survival pressures due to climate change would have spurred physical changes, reducing ‘dimorphism’ or body differences between the sexes.

‘Finally, this paper suggests that the economics of the family, particularly the focus on assortative mating, can be useful for future research on the evolution of sexual dimorphism in Homo [early hominins more broadly, not just Homo sapiens or others].’  

‘A prediction of this paper’s model,’ Petersen noted, is a ‘decline in body size dimorphism.’ 

These changes in sex-based difference — height, weight and strength — ‘may have continued well into the time period of Homo heidelbergensis: an extinct species of human known from fossils dating from 600,000 to 200,000 years ago in Africa, Europe, and possibly Asia,’ he said.

Petersen believes that extreme Ice Age hardship was a key instance in which ‘positive’ natural selection, meaning co-parenting choices, had a bigger impact on human evolution than ‘negative’ natural selection, from deaths and competition. 

‘The paper applies core economic principles, rarely used to explain human evolution prior to Homo sapiens,’ Petersen added. 

‘Sexual selection and parental cooperation, in conjunction with severe glacial phases, helped drive hominin intelligence in the Middle Pleistocene.’

 A whole new ‘Squad’ of progressives is headed to Capitol Hill next year – and could join forces with the Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-anchored group that’s made headlines for pushing the Democratic Party further left and caused a few headaches for party leaders along the way.

While the House of Representatives is on pace to go Republican as of Thursday morning, Democrats outperformed expectations to keep hold of some key swing seats. 

Meanwhile there were also Congressional hopefuls running in safe blue areas that still made history. 

Maxwell Frost, 25, of Florida is the first member of Gen Z elected to Congress and among the youngest Congressman-elects in history.

In Vermont, Becca Balint won a decisive victory to become the state’s first female and LGBTQ person elected to Congress.

The first black woman elected to Congress from Pennsylvania, Summer Lee triumphed despite millions of dollars being spent in favor of her more moderate Democratic primary rival.

It remains to be seen whether all five will coalesce outside of the Congressional Progressive Caucus or join the existing ‘Squad.’

The informal alliance rose in 2019 with core members who had been elected in the 2018 ‘blue wave’: Ocasio-Cortez in New York, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

Two more progressives were elected in 2020 who later joined, Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri and Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York.

But it’s at least guaranteed to grow House Democrats’ progressive presence – especially as some moderates in key areas fell to Republican challengers on Tuesday.

Summer Lee (PA-12): First black woman in the Keystone State elected to Capitol Hill 

Summer Lee beat Republican Mike Doyle in Pennsylvania’s newly-drawn 12th Congressional District, making history as the first black woman elected to represent the Keystone State on Capitol Hill.

She made similar history being elected to Pennsylvania’s statehouse, before making a career as a civil rights attorney.

Lee went into November 8 armed with endorsements from every Squad member plus progressive Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

She ran the race on similar platforms, being in favor of Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.

The United Democracy Project PAC, the campaign funding arm of the American Israel Public Affairs committee, spent six figures both in the primary and general race to defeat Lee – and failed. 

The 34-year-old progressive bested Republican rival Doyle by just over 10 points.

Greg Casar (TX-35): The Austin City Council member who wanted to cut the police budget 

Austin City Council member Greg Casar won his Texas House race with roughly three-quarters of the vote.

In his city position, the progressive congressman-elect had advocated for cutting the police budget and repealing Austin’s ban on homeless encampments. 

Like Lee, he too scored some big name progressive endorsements like Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

However at his election night party, Casar shrugged off concerns that he would legislate to the hard left – despite his deep blue constituency. 

‘I’m ready to put my name on powerful pieces of legislation that would help the everyday person, regardless of whether the sponsor of the bill is a Democrat or Republican Independent. No me importa,’ Casar said, according to Fox 7 Austin.

Maxwell Frost (FL-10): The 25-year-old activist who is the youngest ever member of Congress 

Maxwell Frost is a 25-year-old progressive activist who made history as the first member of Gen Z elected to Congress, sailing to victory in his Democratic district that’s anchored by Orlando.

He won in the Sunshine State despite some big gains by Republicans there, including flipping the vacated House seats of Democratic Reps. Charlie Crist and Stephanie Murphy, as well as a decisive re-election victory for Governor Ron DeSantis.

Formerly an activist for the American Civil Liberties Union and March For Our Lives, Frost clinched a meaningful endorsement from the father of teenager Jamie Guttenberg, who was killed in Florida’s Marjorie Stoneman Douglas high school mass shooting. 

He’s taking over the seat left open by Democratic Rep. Val Demings, who vacated it to run unsuccessfully for Senate against GOP Sen. Marco Rubio. 

President Joe Biden gave Frost a special shoutout during his post-midterms press conference on Wednesday afternoon.

‘I told him that I was the first elected- the second youngest person ever elected United States senator, at 29,’ the 79-year-old president said. ‘And I have no doubt he’s off to an an incredible start of what I’m sure will be a long distinguished career.’

Becca Balint (VT-At large): Vermont’s first woman and first openly LGTBQ person representative 

Vermonters only get to send one representative to the House, and they’ve chosen their first woman and first openly LGTBQ person for the job.

Becca Balint won more than 60 percent of the vote and was endorsed by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

When she gets to Capitol Hill in January, she’ll be the only openly LGBTQ member of Congress serving currently.

‘Today, we reaffirmed that Vermont, and this nation, is still a place where anything is possible. We’re still capable of change and progress,’ Balint, a former schoolteacher, said when claiming victory in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

‘Tonight, after 231 years, Vermonters are sending a woman and openly gay person to Congress for the first time.’

As a current state lawmaker in Vermont, she’s acted in favor of safeguards to affordable housing and gun control.

Delia Ramirez (IL-03): The Squad-backed state lawmaker who advocates for immigrants 

Illinois state lawmaker Delia Ramirez is yet another progressive Democrat heading to Congress next year after soundly beating Republican Justin Burau.

With her Chicago-area victory, Ramirez becomes the first Latina from the Midwest elected to Congress. 

Her left-wing credentials include endorsements from the Working Families Party and Reps Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Ayanna Pressley.

Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal also endorsed Ramirez.

‘We broke a glass ceiling,’ Ramirez told her supporters on Tuesday night.  

On her website Ramirez touts her work on behalf of immigrants as an Illinois state lawmaker, writing that she had ‘co-sponsored legislation to stop Illinois cops from acting as Trump’s deportation force and making IL one of the most immigrant-friendly states in the nation.’

Many women dream of larger breasts… But the experts say a bigger bust is NOT the key to happiness

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Updated: 19:54 EDT, 30 June 2023

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