Male faces have evolved to take a punch

[steven lloyd]

New study suggests male faces have evolved to take a punch
Cheryl Santa Maria

Monday, June 9, 2014, 3:14 PM - A new paper by researchers from the University of Utah argues that human male faces have evolved to have "beefier" features to minimize injuries sustained from punches to the face.

This can especially be seen in skull analysis of our australopith ancestors. The theory has sparked a buzz in the academic world, largely because it strays away from the long-held belief that the human face evolved out of a need to chew on hard foods like nuts.

A more "robust" face isn't the only combative trait we've developed. Lead author Dave Carrier points out that australopiths developed "hand proportions that allow formation of a fist; effectively turning the delicate musculoskeletal system of the hand into a club effective for striking".

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/a ... nch/29191/

[1nick]

[Glacier]

New study suggests male faces have evolved to take a punch

Hey, I'm not punching you in the face because I'm a bully, I'm doing it to help improve the evolution of the species.

[zzontar]

On a similar note, male feces have evolved to pack a punch.

[Danielson99]

*removed*

[Liquidnails]

The study is poorly summarized by the weather network.

If you read the actual study itself, it states that HUMAN faces may have evolved to minimize injury from punches.

It is not a scientific fact, and it is not just the faces of men.

[sobrohusfat]

I call BS - and still have the deviated septum to prove it.

[Poindexter]

The male skull may be reinforced to take blows but unlikely from fists. Your knuckles are made of cartlidge with no blood flow and heal very poorly. Damaged hands would have been death sentence to our primitive ancestors and would have in all likelihood been avoided.

There are some martial arts masters that have conditioned thier knuckles to absorb greater force, but most of what they learn is technique. Even with all the training they still damage thier cartlidge irrevocably.

I''ve heard it said that if the fist was designed for striking skulls, humans would in all likeyhood have become extinct long ago. Our distant relatives, the monkeys and apes, strike with the side of the hand, a primitive version of the Kung Fu chop. This is the type of strike the primate hand was designed for, not for punching with the knuckles.

[Danielson99]

*removed*

[Danielson99]

Humans have skin that rips and cuts like a hot knife through butter. I can't see any way in which we were made for physical violence. One punch to the face can kill a person, how much more evidence do we need than that?

[fvkasm2x]

And in related news...

Humans waste more money on ridiculous studies and experiments that help us in no discernible way.

[Glacier]

The study is poorly summarized by the weather network.

If you read the actual study itself, it states that HUMAN faces may have evolved to minimize injury from punches.

It is not a scientific fact, and it is not just the faces of men.

Welcome to evolutionary biology. I've never seen them come up with anything without using the word may to describe the latest theory on why things are the way they are. The are like native legends about why an animal obtained a certain feature, but with less imagination. I prefer the native legends.

[LoneWolf_53]

Sounds like about as plausible a theory as cows having evolved to store money. (wallets)