Question

What was the earliest hominid to have an enlarged brain (relative to body size)?
A. Neanderthal    
B. Homo habilis
C. Australopithecus
D. Homo erectus

Answer 1

Hint:  Homo habilis was short and had unreasonably long arms in comparison to modern humans, but with a less swollen face than the australopithecines from which it is believed to have descended. Its cranial capacity was smaller than half of the size of modern humans.
Complete Step-by-step answer: The expansion of the hominid brain seems to have only really started with the genus Homo. The brain of the older hominid genus Australopithecus had a volume of approximately 400 cubic centimeters, not much bigger than that of the great apes. But between 2 million and 700 000 years ago, the size of the brain of Homo erectus doubled. The other major rise in brain volume took place between 500 000 and 100 000 years ago, in Homo sapiens, and the human brain currently has a volume of 1350 cubic centimeters. In less than 4 million years, a relatively short time in evolutionary terms, the hominid brain, therefore, grew to three times the size it had succeeded in 60 million years of primate evolution. The brain was intermediate in size among that of Australopithecus and that of Homo sapiens. Homo habilis had come in the age between Homo sapiens and Australopithecus.
Therefore the correct answer is Option B.
Note: Homo habilis was the first human-like hominid with a brain capacity of 650-800cc. Homo erectus had a brain capacity of 900 cc and existed at approximately 1.5 mya and ate meat.Homo neanderthalensis had a brain capacity of 1400 cc and existed 1-0.4 mya . They buried their dead bodies and used animal skin to cover their bodies. Homo sapiens contain a brain capacity of 1350 cc. They have existed since 0.75-0.1 mya.