The typical explanation for why humans have smaller jaws than early primates is that our diets changed, and so we didn’t “need” bigger jaws.
Maybe, if you're getting your typical explanations from outdated high school biology books.
Human skull and bone structure along with genes relating to muscle strength, have to do with our giant brains and the necessary skull changes to accommodate them.
I'm not bothered enough to find the relevant papers, despite the fact that someone is wrong on the internet.
-- EDITED--
The old-school view of evolution as tiny little changes over a ridiculously long period of time is turning out to be not quite exactly true.
Yeaaaah... I'm done reading that article. (The above has not been true of the school of evolution since BEFORE Stephen J. Gould)
Can the late Steven Jay Gould be a hack and yet still have accurate ideas about some scientific issues? If I only believed statements by people who were absolutely above reproach, I wouldn't believe much.
Maybe, if you're getting your typical explanations from outdated high school biology books.
Human skull and bone structure along with genes relating to muscle strength, have to do with our giant brains and the necessary skull changes to accommodate them.
I'm not bothered enough to find the relevant papers, despite the fact that someone is wrong on the internet.
-- EDITED--
The old-school view of evolution as tiny little changes over a ridiculously long period of time is turning out to be not quite exactly true.
Yeaaaah... I'm done reading that article. (The above has not been true of the school of evolution since BEFORE Stephen J. Gould)