A report in today's Science Daily Magazine previews a forthcoming article by Caspari and Lee in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. C & L have analysed over 750 paleolithic human remains to determine their age at the time of death. The analysis shows a large increase in the proportion of relatively mature individuals (over about 30) in the Upper Paleolithic, around 30,000 years BC.

This could be very significant in explaining the 'explosion' of cultural development around that time. Of course, there is a chicken-and-egg problem: which came first, the improvement in life expectancy, or the cultural development?

One would also want such a dramatic finding to be independently verified, preferably on separate material, before getting too gung-ho about its importance.