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November 6, 2015
Q. Let's face it: Have you ever wondered why we humans are practically the only animal with a chin?
A. One theory has it that random genetic mutation and chance played a major role, while others argue that natural selection actually favored the chin, writes Katie-Meelel Nodjimbadem in Smithsonian magazine. Enter University of Florida evolutionary anthropologist James Pampush, who studied more than 100 primate species and found that “the angles that define the chin changed rapidly during recent human evolution but not elsewhere in the primate family tree.” Some 100 years ago, anthropologist T.T. Waterman had argued that the chin was part of a shrinking face, as the first modern humans evolved. Pampush's conclusion: “Natural selection must have been involved in producing that very unusual chin shape.”
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