The analysis compared skulls from seven hominid species, including humans, gorillas, and chimpanzees, as well as nine hylobatid species such as gibbons. While hominids and hylobatids split evolutionarily about 20 million years ago, hominids developed much greater diversity, with humans evolving the most distinctive skulls and largest brains among them.
Lead researcher Dr Aida Gomez-Robles explained, "Of all the ape species, humans have evolved the fastest. This likely speaks to how crucial skull adaptations associated with having a big brain and small faces are for humans that they evolved at such a fast rate. These adaptations can be related to the cognitive advantages of having a big brain, but there could be social factors influencing our evolution as well."
The research broke down the skulls into four main sections: upper face, lower face, front, and back of the head. Comparisons revealed that humans displayed about twice as much structural change as would be expected under normal evolutionary pressures.
While gibbons share some traits with humans - such as flatter faces - their brain size is much smaller. The UCL team used the slow evolution of hylobatids as a baseline for comparison, substantiating the extent of rapid human development.
Dr Gomez-Robles also noted that gorillas demonstrated the next fastest skull evolution but with relatively smaller brains, likely due to social factors such as larger cranial crests linked to status. She added, "It's possible that some similar, uniquely human social selection may have occurred in humans as well."
The findings suggest that both cognitive advancement and social drivers played key roles in accelerating human craniofacial evolution.
Research Report:Accelerated evolution increased craniofacial divergence between humans and great apes
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