Comments | anthropologist: Time changes modern human's face

sugarimp in anthropologist

Time changes modern human's face

Jan 27, 2006 21:38

Researchers have found that the shape of the human skull has changed significantly over the past 650 years.Modern people possess less prominent features but higher foreheads than our medieval ancestors ( Read more... )

paleoanthropology, evolution, skulls

Comments 10

keigan January 27 2006, 19:44:14 UTC

Awesome.

malkin767 January 27 2006, 19:59:25 UTC

That's really interesting. I'd be interested to see further studies with more skulls from different places.

silentpicture2 January 27 2006, 22:09:29 UTC

Weren't people significantly smaller in general at that time??? nutrition culd have played a part.

caatinga January 27 2006, 23:13:13 UTC

Agreed. The kings of 1348 didn't live/eat as well as those dentistry students, I'd wager. Maybe it is true, but let's keep our unknowns straight...

sugarimp January 27 2006, 23:52:35 UTC

Maybe they're calculating it proportion wise?

sollersuk January 27 2006, 22:31:13 UTC

I've seen this elsewhere and I think it's b*ll*cks. I spent over 10 years studying Human Skeletal Remains in Archaeology, looking at skulls from the beginning of agriculture to recent, and we didn't see any significant changes at all.

beckyzoole January 28 2006, 02:35:54 UTC

Assuming the data is accurate, there are many possible reasons for these results.

1) Differences in nutrition causing different growth patterns.
2) Differences in the ways babies and children sleep (sleeping on the stomach on a hard surface molds the skull differently than sleeping on the side on a soft surface, etc.)
3) Differences in the ethnic origins of different populations at different times.
4) Actual evolution due to increased intelligence, as the article suggests
5) Actual evolution due to the prevalence of C-sections. Now big-headed babies can be delivered safely, and are more likely to live than they were in the 14th century.

sollersuk January 28 2006, 13:49:24 UTC

Now that I've got the time for a longer post, I agree wholeheartedly. Different nutrition saw people shrink in this country between the 10th and 13th centuries, and as they were less robust, the skulls looked different as well. And I went very deeply into the question of artificial cranial deformation when I was studying Human Skeletal Remains in Archaeology, and found there were at least three patterns, at least one of which was still in use in Western Europe in the 20th century - creating the appearance of ethnic differences which did not in fact exist.

There's a problem about 4, in that the cranial capacity of Neanderthals was greater than modern humans, which suggests either that we have been underestimating their intelligence or brain size has nothing to do with it. With regard to the question of brain size and intelligence, I suggest a good hard look at the actor Deep Roy.

beckyzoole January 28 2006, 21:53:25 UTC

My money is on #5. Modern obstetrics means that big-headed babies can be born safely, and their mothers can live to have more big-headed babies.

I agree that brain size per se has little to do with intelligence, although I also think we may very well underestimate the intelligence of the Neandertals!