In a previous post, we summed up what makes mammals special: not a single trait, but a general trend.
[T]he over-arching attribute manifested by the origin of the mammals is increasing homeostatic ability: the maintenance of a constant internal environment in the face of a fluctuating external environment, by means of high-energy regulatory processes.(Kemp p. 18)
The same trend continues, even further, in hominin evolution. Humans are mammals squared.
Some parallels below, for particular traits.
Mammals (vs. reptiles) | Hominins (vs. apes) | |
Energy budget | High basal metabolic rate (BMR) allows sustained aerobic activity | Typical mammal BMR, but higher total metabolism. External energy (fire) for higher total energy. |
Rate of food collection | High rate of food collection | Higher rate of food collection. Ecological engineering. |
Mechanical processing of food | Complex dentition | Tools to chop, grind, mash food, allowing reduced dentition |
Energy for processing food | Higher metabolism means more energy for digestion | Fire means cooking |
Energetic investment in young | Mothers do gestation, lactation, infant care | Others give mothers & young extra food and support |
Body covering for thermoregulation, adornment | Fur | Clothing |
Posture | Limbs under body, sustained high speeds | Bipedalism, endurance running |
Brain size | Large brains | Ginormous brains |
Behavior | Learning, social learning, play | Shared intentions, cumulative culture, language, imagined worlds |
Social organiztion | (Some) complex social organization, recognize individuals, others’ social relationships | (Some) enormous organized social groups, roles, norms, social scripts |
Time scale (years) | 100 millions | Millions |
Interesting parallels. But the last line of the chart show a striking difference. Mammals developed their special way of life over hundreds of millions of years, hominins over just millions. The triumph of mammals was a triumph of biological evolution that required the slow coordinated evolution of a complex of traits. The triumph of hominins over millions of years was (largely) a triumph of cultural evolution: some somatic adaptation, and a lot more extra somatic.