Since the human life history pattern has grown divergent from our fellow hominoids we must address when it
evolved. Growing consensus suggests that our life history pattern started to co-evolve gradually with the emergence
of the genus Homo approximately 2 million years ago. Techniques for understanding the evolutionary emergence
of modern human life history is related to understanding the relationship between life expectancy and brain size in
mammalian species, as well as the relationship between lifespan and age-at-first reproduction.
The paleoanthropological record provides us with both the cranial and the bone and dental evidence needed to piece
together the evolution of human encephalization quotient (EQ) as well as average sexual maturation. As a result, we
can estimate the evolution of long human lifespan and the evolution of modern human life history more generally.