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by ibgames

EARTHDATE: June 15, 2014

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REAL LIFE NEWS: MEN HAVE PUNCHABLE FACES

by Hazed

It’s a common insult, when talking about someone you don’t like, to say they have a face made to be punched. Now it turns out that men may actually have faces made to be punched.

A new theory from two evolutionary biologists suggests that men’s faces evolved to be better able to withstand blows. Australopiths, which were the immediate predecessor to homo sapiens, can be seen from fossil remains to have very robust facial structures which previously was considered to be because their diet included tough foods such as nuts, seeds and grasses. But new evidence shows that actually they were more likely to have eaten fruit, so the cause for their robust facial bones must have been something different.

Professor David Carrier from the University of Utah proposes that violent competition between males who fought over females and resources would have demanded that these facial fortifications be developed. Those men with beefier facial features were more able to defend themselves against fist fights, and so were more likely to survive to breed – or to win and therefore get the best mates and so breed more.

However, this facial armouring is much less pronounced in humans and other descendants of australopiths, because they had a decreasing need for protection. Their arms and upper body were not so strong, so their faces didn’t need to be so robust.

The idea of facial buttressing builds on the scientists’ previous controversial observations that early hominins were the first primates whose hands could make a fist, and therefore punch their opponents. This theory was disputed by other scientists, and their new theory is likely to be met with just as much debate.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27720617

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