short and interesting (and a little frustrating) read. These kinds of "mysteries" have always bugged me. I like answers. :-) theadvancedapes - do you have any insight on this one?
At least we can wildly speculate about it. I dont fully agree with this: If chin help male get laid, then the female also get a evolutionary advantage to have it: her male offspring will procreate more easily. The question become, how chin became a sought after feature?sexually selective features like this typically only develop in one gender
So... I don't really buy this. If you look up "why do we have chins" you see a flurry of articles from April, all related to James Pampush's dissertation from Duke, which was just published this month (thus the double-pump). But the thesis doesn't really say "why do we have chins" it says "the research to date on chins doesn't agree." One thing it doesn't say is "there isn't a lot of research on chins." Which, considering the predominant theory was "so we can chew", is kind of a big part of it. OF COURSE we don't have big chins so we can chew. Humans chew less than any other omnivore because we cook our food. Richard Wrangham made the point that if we ate the same diet as chimps we'd spend two hours a day chewing (and the further point that it was our discovery of external digestion via cooking that freed up all the energy necessary for us to develop big brains but that's another point). But then, these sorts of arguments are usually pretty stupid. Take sinuses, for example. I've seen compelling arguments that humans evolved sinuses because they allow for clearer speech and easier articulation, which matters when you switch from gatherer to hunter. But then, there are those who say "they help our heads float" which, I think, only demonstrates the low bar in evolutionary anthropology. Look at a mirror. Make a range of facial expressions. Watch your chin. Now ask yourself - does that sucker move any? By the way: A third idea is that the chin could help people choose mates, but sexually selective features like this typically only develop in one gender, Pampush tells Siegel.
