Why do you need a chin
People are the only animals that have a chin. In chimpanzees and gorillas, the lower jaw does not protrude in the form of a roller, as it did not in the Neanderthal man and the erectus. Only a modern person has a mental triangle formed by small mental stones. And no one knows why.
Still from the film “I, I and Iren Again”
“It's really strange that only people have chins,” says James Pampush of Duke University. “When we consider things that are unique in modern man, we cannot talk about big brains or upright walking, because our ancestors had the same thing. But they had no chins. ” In some people, the chins are more pronounced, their shape and size depend on the fine bone, fatty deposits and muscles.
Why does a man need a chin? Scientists do not have a single answer to this question, but there are many theories. One of the most popular is that chins arose as an adaptation to chewing loads. After a person began to eat food cooked on fire, he no longer needed large teeth and powerful jaws, the lower part of his face decreased, and his chin was formed for balance.
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According to another version, the chin is associated with an increase in the size of the human brain. When our ancestor, the erect-walking man, was already supposedly eating boiled food, he did not yet have a chin.
Among the causes of the appearance of the chin are sexual. A powerful chin serves as an indicator of increased testosterone levels and good heredity, like peacock tail and deer horns. This theory also has a weak point: women also have chins, and the bright signs of belonging to a certain sex usually belong to only one of the sexes.
There is an assumption that the chin has helped to adjust the man's jaw to speech. But there is no evidence that our language exerts such a force during a conversation that the appearance of additional bones is justified. In addition, other mammals also communicate using sounds, but they do not have a chin.
The natural selection hypothesis suggests that the chin is the result of an adaptation to the blows to the face. The more powerful the chin was, the more power a person could take. But this hypothesis suggests that people constantly beat each other.
James Pampush doubts that the chin appeared as a result of adaptation to something. It may have become a side effect. In the process of evolution, the human face was shortened, the posture straightened. To give the tongue and soft tissues of a person’s mouth more of a place, the jaw bent forward, instead of going back to the skull right after the lower teeth. But the contour of the inner surface of the mouth does not repeat the external structure of the human face. Another explanation is that the load on the teeth has decreased, they have decreased and began to “pull into the face”, and for balance, the lower jaw that holds them has increased, forming a chin.
The answer to the question why the chin appeared, yet. Theories show only how scientists are trying to explain its appearance from the point of view of the science they are studying.
Still from the film “I, I and Iren Again”
“It's really strange that only people have chins,” says James Pampush of Duke University. “When we consider things that are unique in modern man, we cannot talk about big brains or upright walking, because our ancestors had the same thing. But they had no chins. ” In some people, the chins are more pronounced, their shape and size depend on the fine bone, fatty deposits and muscles.
Why does a man need a chin? Scientists do not have a single answer to this question, but there are many theories. One of the most popular is that chins arose as an adaptation to chewing loads. After a person began to eat food cooked on fire, he no longer needed large teeth and powerful jaws, the lower part of his face decreased, and his chin was formed for balance.
')
According to another version, the chin is associated with an increase in the size of the human brain. When our ancestor, the erect-walking man, was already supposedly eating boiled food, he did not yet have a chin.
Among the causes of the appearance of the chin are sexual. A powerful chin serves as an indicator of increased testosterone levels and good heredity, like peacock tail and deer horns. This theory also has a weak point: women also have chins, and the bright signs of belonging to a certain sex usually belong to only one of the sexes.
There is an assumption that the chin has helped to adjust the man's jaw to speech. But there is no evidence that our language exerts such a force during a conversation that the appearance of additional bones is justified. In addition, other mammals also communicate using sounds, but they do not have a chin.
The natural selection hypothesis suggests that the chin is the result of an adaptation to the blows to the face. The more powerful the chin was, the more power a person could take. But this hypothesis suggests that people constantly beat each other.
James Pampush doubts that the chin appeared as a result of adaptation to something. It may have become a side effect. In the process of evolution, the human face was shortened, the posture straightened. To give the tongue and soft tissues of a person’s mouth more of a place, the jaw bent forward, instead of going back to the skull right after the lower teeth. But the contour of the inner surface of the mouth does not repeat the external structure of the human face. Another explanation is that the load on the teeth has decreased, they have decreased and began to “pull into the face”, and for balance, the lower jaw that holds them has increased, forming a chin.
The answer to the question why the chin appeared, yet. Theories show only how scientists are trying to explain its appearance from the point of view of the science they are studying.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/390077/
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