Male faces 'buttressed against punches' by evolution

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27720617

by schrofer • 12 years ago

42 36 12 years ago

bbc.com

balor123• 12 years ago

So we can survive a punch to the face now but we can't breath while asleep. Thanks for nothing, nature!

pavel_lishin3• 12 years ago

How do our faces prevent us from breathing in our sleep? I seem to have survived last night.

ars2• 12 years ago

Sleep apnea and various sinus disorders are not rare.

e40• 12 years ago

Lucky you. Many people suffer from a deviated septum, which restricts airflow. The airflow in one of my nostrils is dramatically less than the other, and if the good one is blocked, for any reason (cold, allergies), I'm a mouth breather.

Florin_Andrei• 12 years ago

Apparently, the evolutionary impetus to withstand punches to the face is greater than the one to breathe easily at night.

Mother Nature is awful.

andyjdavis• 12 years ago

Indeed. Natural selection only cares about things that interfere with the ability to live long enough to reproduce. Whether or not the organism is happy, well rested and enjoys their life isn't particularly important from an evolutionary stand point.

jonathansizz2• 12 years ago

The problem with drawing these kinds of conclusions is that it's easy to invent adaptive stories that purport to explain changes in morphological features, but not easy to build a case that will convince an appropriately sceptical audience.

I've heard of over a dozen disparate adaptive explanations for why zebras have stripes or why human hair is less dense than that of other mammals, but none are necessarily correct.

davidgerard• 12 years ago

Yes, it explains why you've evolved an adaptation to being punched in the face, but not to being kicked in the breadbasket. It's a bit just-so.

It did make this occur to me: http://newstechnica.com/2014/06/09/scientists-tony-abbott-ev... I can't tell you how happy it made me to find out there existed a photo of Tony Abbott getting punched in the face.

thucydides• 12 years ago

Another relevant article from the same site:

Artists' beards evolved to be "structurally different" http://newstechnica.com/2014/04/17/artists-beards-evolved-to...

haberman3• 12 years ago

Totally agreed. It strikes me as very similar to traditional myths, or stories that purport to explain how things are. The only difference is that instead of using gods and supernatural powers, our new myths take into account scientific information like the theory of evolution.

So our new myths are more plausible, but just as unsubstantiated.

hcarvalhoalves• 12 years ago

There's a large difference between a theory and a myth, it doesn't seem logical to make this parallel.

refurb2• 12 years ago

I agree with your observation. I'm not equating evolution to religion, but it's interesting when you think about it. In the past, if you asked why humans had "x", it was because God designed us that way.

If you ask it now, the answer is "because our environment selected for it."

Neither answer provides a useful explanation.

hnriot2• 12 years ago

* So our new myths are more plausible, but just as unsubstantiated.

that's blatant bullshit - god myths are in no way more plausible than scientifically testable means. It's not like evolution isn't something that is not still happening, it's perfectly testable. I am sure that citing numerous examples wouldn't change your mind because no amount of scientific evidence will ever change the minds of those that choose not. Faith is a dangerous thing, but thankfully it will be selected against by evolution as we move into an era where our species survival will rely upon science.

unabridged• 12 years ago

Many theories in physics started out the same way as untestable hypotheses. These untestable hypotheses are still important because they are the first step in designing a testing apparatus.

We shouldn't end/dismiss educated speculation about evolutionary biology because these ideas will eventually lead to the design of simulations where we can test them out.

azakai• 12 years ago

You are very right to be skeptical of findings like these.

However, it sounds like you might be going all the way into complete skepticism of evolutionary biology as a field. I think that's completely unwarranted. Maybe that's not what you mean though, sorry if that's the case.

jonathansizz2• 12 years ago

As I am an evolutionary biologist myself, I'm sorry if I gave that impression.

Adaptationary explanations are posited for anything and everything, especially in the field of evolutionary psychology, and it can get a little annoying. Evolution is much more complex (and much more interesting!) than this, but unfortunately even most people who think of themselves as enlightened are unaware of even major details of how evolution works.

whyenot• 12 years ago

Yes, it could be a spandrel.

see the classic (and controversial) paper by Gould and Lewontin:

Gould, SJ and Lewontin RC. 1979. The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 205(1161): 581-598

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/205/1161/581....

vanderZwan• 12 years ago

In a way this reminds of this SMBC:

http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2138

humanresources• 12 years ago

The article suggests that we started evolving away from adaptations to survive violence two species ago.

imjk• 12 years ago

Damnit, I was hoping to find a justification for my oversized head.

beloch• 12 years ago

I took a couple of physical anthro courses in university, and I never did get a satisfactory explanation for why genus homo evolved a parabolic dental arcade. After reading this, one has to wonder how a parabolic vs. U-shaped dental arcade functions when it comes to spreading force from a fist-blow, either head-on or oblique.

Modern humans have proportionally less upper body strength than australopithecines, but what about neandertal's? If there was a linear relationship between reducing jaw robustness and upper body strength over the last few million years, neadertals have got to be an outlier! If a parabolic dental arcade offers better protection against blows, perhaps fisticuffs remained an evolutionary pressure but nature just found a more efficient way to address it than making thicker bones.

Male faces 'buttressed against punches' by evolution

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