[whyenot]

> it would have been biologically implausible for humans to evolve such a large brain on a raw, vegan diet

Elephants evolved in the same environment, are vegetarians, don't cook their food, and have the largest brains of any land animal.

[stickfigure]

Yet elephant brains have half the number of neurons as humans:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_by_number_of_ne...

Perhaps the caloric requirements of a brain are driven by the number of moving parts. The article suggested a "calories per neuron" metric.

[herval]

Elephant's brains are proportionally smaller than human ones (so are whales', which are huge)...