What critical development is associated with the use of fire in early humans?

The use of fire in early humans is crucially linked to cooking food for improved nutrition. Cooking not only makes food easier to digest but also increases the bioavailability of nutrients, allowing early humans to extract more energy from their food. This increased caloric intake would have significant implications for brain development and overall health, enhancing survival and reproductive success.

Cooking also has broader implications beyond nutrition. While improved hunting techniques, cultural practices, and social gatherings may also be associated with fire use, it is the act of cooking that fundamentally transformed the human diet and supported evolutionary changes in physiology and social behavior. The ability to cook food is considered one of the key adaptations that helped shape human life, leading to larger brains and a shift in lifestyle from foraging to more complex forms of social structure.