Evolution does not stop, and the human face is changing. An international team of researchers is analyzing which features will be preserved and which will be modified. Thanks to them, now we can see how the man of the future would look like. However, there is no certainty in that, except for the fact that the present-day human facial appearance is the result of millions of years of evolution and is still changing.
“[The face] transformed itself from a more intimidating face, which was an advantage for competing, to one that was convenient for getting along with others,” says Penny Spikins, a paleolithic archaeologist at York University. And that made us the most expressive species on Earth.
Now, according to some international experts, there are already clues to see how the face of the man of the future would look like.
For the geneticist Adam Wilkins, the fact that the face is so familiar, as anyone who sees a face knows that it’s a face, doesn’t mean it’s prevalent in nature. “Our eyes are very close together and look forward, human dental arches are disproportionately small in relation to the rest of the body, and we have smaller teeth. That is, the physical characteristics of our face are unusual in nature,” says Wilkins.
The man of the future would have more developed cranium and smaller face
“Of course we keep evolving and changing,” also says David Perrett, a researcher at Saint Andrews University and author of the book “In Your Face: The New Science of Human Attraction.” The diet is changing all the time, and this also changes the shape of the face.
The scientists speculate that for an evolution of the face to continue with more developed cranium and smaller face, a change would be necessary for the female pelvis, whose birth canal is already too narrow, hence our babies are born premature, having to mature postnatally, which imposes its limits.
“I would say that in such an overpopulated world, with millions of human beings living in small spaces, cities, the face continues and will continue to play a key role in our lives. Therefore, the face continues to evolve. From a skeletal point of view, possibly the reduction of the jaw will continue to happen, as it has for two million years,” says Antonio Rosas, a researcher at the Natural Science Museum in Madrid, Spain.
In conclusion, the man of the future would have a smaller face and bigger cranium than today, as you can see in the representation below.
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