# Comparing minds across species without a single ladder

Move from scaling and task design to development, field behaviour and human origins. Each step changes one part of the comparison so that the final synthesis is a research plan, not a ranking of species.

1. [Suzana Herculano-Houzel -- Scaling and Sizes](https://worldscienceu.com/lessons/1-1-scaling-and-sizes/)
   Define what a brain comparison is meant to explain before choosing a measurement.
   Task: Choose a hypothetical ability and list three candidate measurements. Explain what each would leave unmeasured.

2. [Power Laws, Scale Invariance, and Diversity](https://worldscienceu.com/lessons/1-4-power-laws-scale-invariance-and-diversity/)
   Add proportional reasoning to the initial measurement question.
   Task: Use invented size values 1, 2 and 4 with a second measurement 1, 4 and 16. Calculate the changing ratio and label the exercise fictional; explain why it says nothing about real intelligence.

3. [Neural Underpinnings of Individual Recognition in the Brain](https://www.ibiology.org/neuroscience/individual-recognition/)
   Turn from broad anatomical differences to a concrete recognition problem.
   Task: Distinguish recognising an individual from responding to a familiar signal. Propose one comparison that would help separate those interpretations.

4. [Delayed neuronal maturation in humans](https://carta.anthropogeny.org/events/sessions/delayed-neuronal-maturation-humans)
   Add developmental timing and molecular questions without losing the behavioural target.
   Task: Make separate boxes for developmental pattern, candidate molecular mechanism and proposed consequence. Mark which link the source identifies as unresolved.

5. [Love, monogamy, and fatherhood in Latin American monkeys](https://carta.anthropogeny.org/events/sessions/love-monogamy-and-fatherhood-latin-american-monkeys)
   Move from a laboratory question to long-term field comparisons and competing explanations.
   Task: List two explanations of pair bonding or care mentioned in the abstract. State an observation that would be more expected under one than the other.

6. [Digging with documents: Ethnology as a tool for understanding human evolution](https://carta.anthropogeny.org/events/sessions/digging-documents-ethnology-tool-understanding-human-evolution)
   Ask how present comparisons might inform a claim about human origins.
   Task: Write one potential use and one limitation of a cross-cultural analogy. Identify what historical evidence would still be required.

7. [Social complexity: Why modern humans are more like certain ants than chimpanzees](https://carta.anthropogeny.org/events/sessions/social-complexity-why-modern-humans-are-more-certain-ants-chimpanzees)
   Finish with a deliberately challenging analogy across very different organisms.
   Task: Construct a one-page comparison plan with separate rows for anatomy, behaviour and organisation. Use the methods reading to identify a confound and an alternative explanation; avoid an overall species score.

Original route: Evidence Press, CC BY 4.0. Linked teaching material retains its own rights. No videos or YouTube API payloads are included.