Whales boast the brain cells that 'make us human'

Now it has been discovered that some whales also have spindle neurons – specialised brain cells that are involved in processing emotions and helping us interact socially. Hof and van der Gucht suggest that whales probably evolved the spindle cells completely independently of humans and apes – a process called convergent evolution. Moreover, they probably evolved them as long as 30 million years ago, twice as long ago as humans and apes.

Guessers: Patrick Hof of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York