Cerebral rubicon

A "cerebral rubicon" in paleontology is the minimum cranial capacity required for a specimen to be classified as a certain paleospecies or genus. The term is mostly used in reference to human evolution.[1]

The Scottish anthropologist Sir Arthur Keith set the limit at 750 cc for the genus Homo.[1] The minimum cranial capacity for the species Homo sapiens is generally set at 900cc.[1]

One of the reasons for the proposal to exclude Homo habilis from the genus Homo, and renaming it as "Australopithecus habilis", is the small capacity of their cranium (363cc -600 cc).

Origin

The term is most likely a reference to the Rubicon river, which in the time of the Roman Empire marked the border between Cisapline Gaul and Italy proper. Crossing the river with an army, as Julius Caesar did in 49 B.C., was illegal by Roman law and is commonly seen as the "point-of-no-return" for Caesar's revolution. As such, a "rubicon" can be used idiomatically as any strict dividing line or point-of-no-return.

gollark: > you mean he will find ways to extend his life by centuries?!I'd hope so. Immortality is cool and good.
gollark: Precisely.
gollark: Technically, I never agreed to it, so WAR CRIME TIME!
gollark: Don't like what your army does? Well, wait up to 5 years and then maybe supply about four bits of (binding) information about what you think your government should look like.
gollark: Yes, it's very indirect and not very good, but same with modern "democratic" governments.

See also

References
  1. Holmes, Andrew (2015-01-02). "Live Like Dirt: Homo files: the cerebral rubicon". Livelikedirt.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
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