Anthropologists at the University of Tennessee conducted an original study and found that the shape of the American head is changing. What this is connected with is still unclear, but it is quite obvious that the skulls of white Americans have become larger, taller and narrower, and their faces, accordingly, have narrowed and extended in height. It is possible that this also applies to the rest of the world's population.
The study was conducted by scientists from the Department of Forensic Anthropology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville: Forensic Anthropology Coordinator Lee Jantz, Professor Emeritus Richard Jantz, and Associate Professor Joan Devlin. Scientists studied 1,500 American skulls from the mid-1800s to the mid-1980s and discovered a strange phenomenon: the average height from the base to the top of the skull in men increased by 8 millimeters, the volume of the skull increased by 200 cubic centimeters - almost from tennis ball. For women, the corresponding increase was 7 millimeters and 180 cubic centimeters. As a result, the skull has grown by an impressive 6.8% since the late 1800s, while body height has increased by 5.6% and thigh length has only increased by 2%.
Researchers cannot pinpoint the reasons for the changes in the shape of the head of the Americans. It is not yet clear whether this is due to evolutionary changes or a change in lifestyle, which in modern people is very different from that of their ancestors. Scientists hypothesize that this is the result of a change in growth patterns through improved nutrition, reduced infant and maternal mortality, less manual labor, and the elimination of old ethical barriers to marriage. But which of the reasons are of paramount importance, scientists do not yet know.
The researchers also found that humans began to mature physically earlier. In particular, this was reflected in the early closure of a special area of the skull called sphenoid-occipital synchondrosis. Previously, it was covered with cartilage at the age of about 20 years, and now much earlier - at 14 years old for girls and 16 for boys.
The studies were conducted only with European Americans, as the scientists had the largest sample bank for this group. However, it is possible that changes in the skeleton also occur in other regions of the planet, which means that this trend is common for all of humanity. The changes are going pretty quickly and make you think about what many science fiction writers have drawn, describing sedentary people of the future as creatures with a disproportionately large head, short legs, long torso and arms. It is interesting that many "contactees with aliens" describe just such creatures, and some ufologists consider them guests from the future.
