Anthropological and archaeological studies are concluding that human faces have been getting smaller — shrinking 1-2% per thousand years for the last 10K or so. The reason is that we’re eating better — or at least not eating stuff that requires massive jawbones and musculature to grind it up for us.
“Many men then [10,000 years ago] would have had the shape of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s head while women might have looked more like Camilla [the Duchess of Cornwall]. By contrast, Tony Blair and George Bush are good examples of the more delicate modern form.”
Meanwhile, the shrinking face and jaw are blamed on increasing problems with crooked and overlapping teeth over the centuries, and are seen in part reflected in the reduction in wisdom teeth in the same period.
“Whats more, we are growing less teeth. Ten thousand years ago everyone grew wisdom teeth but now only half of us get them, and other teeth like the lateral incisors have become much smaller. This is evolution in action.”
(via GeekPress)