Scientists have explained why people abandoned the massive brow ridges that distinguished our distant ancestors.
In ancient times, beauty standards were markedly different from those of today. Every self-respecting hominid (this is a progressive family of primates, which also includes humans) has sought to acquire raised and raised brow ridges.
Why did modern man abandon the heritage of his ancestors and prefer a straight, flat forehead?
Archaeologists from the University of York (UK), researching this question, have found a far from trivial answer to it.
“For our early ancestors, the bony outgrowth of the superciliary skull played about the same role as antlers in deer,” explains lead author Paul O'Higgins, professor at the Center for Human Anatomy and Study. - This is evidence of the dominant status of the male and the high level of aggression. An interesting hint about the function of this brow ridge can be obtained by studying modern mandrills. These monkeys have the most striking appearance among the primates. Dominant males can be recognized by the bony grooves along the nose, which are painted in bright blues and blues. The shape and color of these bumps depends on hormone levels. The structure of these bony formations is very similar to the structure of the brow ridges of archaic hominids.
In other words, if a modern man with his flat forehead appeared in the company of Pithecanthropus, no decent girl would go dancing with such a low-ranking male. To test this hypothesis, scientists based on computed tomography data created a digital 3D model of the skull known under the code designation Kabwe 1. It was found near the city of Kabwe, located in central Zambia and belonged to a male Heidelberg man (this is a species of fossil people) who lived in the time interval between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago.
Two alternative scientific hypotheses were also tested with the help of special software. According to one of them, a massive superciliary roller reduced the load on the skull when biting off and chewing rough food. However, computer modeling showed that a decrease in the thickness of the browbones did not affect the bite force in any way and did not increase mechanical stress on other bones of the skull. Another version said that the massive brow ridges arose as a result of the movement of the bones of the skull: enlarging the eye sockets and turning them forward. But this hypothesis was also not confirmed as a result of computer simulations.
As a result of the dropout, one plausible hypothesis remained: the smoothing of the frontal bones is associated with the fact that a person needed a variety of facial expressions for closer social communication.
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The bony relief of our face began to actively level out about 100,000 years ago. And the most active phase of this process began about 20 thousand years ago and coincided with the great Neolithic revolution. Its essence was the transition from the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers to the creation of communities based on agriculture and livestock raising.
Social life within these small groups of people became more complex and required a higher level of cooperation during agricultural work. Therefore, aggressive males with well-developed brow ridges interfered with the cohesion of communities, introduced unnecessary conflicts, chaos and discord into tribal life.
- Why did our closest relatives, the Neanderthals, die out at a time when people quickly colonized the Earth and survived in extreme situations? - said study co-author Dr. Penny Skipins. - We believe that this is due to the ability of modern people to create ramified social networks. We know, for example, that prehistoric people managed to avoid closely related marriages and chose partners from communities that were very far away. And the help of distant relatives helped to survive in difficult times.
For communication, it is not enough just to understand each other's language. Equally important information about a person is given by facial expressions. Eyebrow movements allow us to express complex emotions as well as perceive signals from other people. We can "read" in this facial expressions sympathy, openness, trust, doubt and other emotions. The face is the mirror of the soul! Dr. Skipins believes that eyebrow movement is the missing puzzle piece about how modern humans have been able to build stronger social bonds with each other. And why other species have lost the competition to us.
YAROSLAV KOROBATOV