http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2014/06/09/did-violence-shape-evolution-of-the-human-face
New research shows that the human (primarily male) face may have evolved to regulate injury from punches from other humans. Males who were able to survive and win fights were more likely to reproduce than those who did not. Human's ancestors, called australopiths, evolved so that their hands were able to form fists. If these changes in the formation of our hands were due to frequent fighting among males, then it is thought that the current male human face was selected for so that it minimized damage from punches. Another study has shown that the greatest difference in the structure of male and female faces is that the parts of the face that are most likely to be broken in a fight are larger and stronger in males opposed to females . Further research in this topic revealed that male hand proportions, bipedal posture, and facial structure all actually do help in fighting. This evidence points to frequent male combat among human' ancestors, which is quite possibly the reason for why our body, and especially our face, is built how it is.
This relates to the current unit because it has to do with natural selection and evolution. The current structure of our face and hands were selected for because they helped males to survive and reproduce.
If the shape of our faces evolved from violence, then why did our ancestors have thicker skulls? Theoretically, an animal with a thicker skull would be able to survive better in a fight.
ReplyDeleteIt's the opposite. We have thicker skulls than our ancestors due to natural selection; the ancestors with thick skulls survived because they could survive fights better..
DeleteWhat are some examples of something like this occurring in other species?
ReplyDeleteI couldn't find much about skulls, but many other species attack each other like humans. An example of this is the chimpanzee population, in which bands of killer monkeys gang up on other monkeys and kill them. This type of violence has also been observed among lions, wolves and hyenas, suggesting that over-aggression is not a human-specific trait.
DeleteAre there any other body parts that we may have evolved to also sustain more impact? LIke are our ribs specially designed to withstand a blow?
ReplyDelete