A new study suggests that our past was pretty violent, so much so that it caused us to evolve in different ways.
We know that we've come a fairly long way from our ancestors, but that we still have a few characteristics in common with them, and it seems the shape of our face is one of them.
According to The BBC, some of the bones that show the most divergence between males and females are facial bones, and this may be as a result of "buttressing against punches" earlier in our evolutionary journey. Australopiths, the immediate predecessors of the human genus Homo, had very strong facial features, in particular in the areas where injuries would occur as a result of fist fights and violence.
The brow and the jaw were significantly more reinforced in that genus, and as the Homo genus evolved (decreasing in upper body strength along the way) those features became less pronounced. In an image comparing the skulls below, it's clear to see in the second and third examples the more pronounced, stronger facial bones that the study says were developed as protection.
Pic via BBC/University of Utah
It had been believed that the australopiths or the "nutcracker man" had developed these facial features in order to deal with a tough diet of nuts and seeds, but Prof David Carrier, of the University of Utah and lead author of the new study suggests that their diet mainly consisted of fruit, and that these features are as a reaction to violent blows from other males, fighting over females and resources.
Prof. Carrier added that it makes sense on a number levels, not least because while a broken jaw today can be fixed, while were that to happen to you four million yeas ago "it was probably a fatal injury. You wouldn't be able to chew food... You'd just starve to death". Makes sense to us, anyway...
