Homo futuris

Last december I saw a feature on television (”Overleven” on Canvas, Belgium) on the continuing evolution of the human species, they (Marie-Josephe Deshaye and Anne Dambricourt) stated that evolution is a consequence of changes in the human body, specifically one bone at the base of the skull. And we would get higher foreheads and a ‘withdrawing’ [I don't know if that's the correct word] lower jaw.

Now there’s an article on BBC News on the higher foreheads since the middle ages: Time changes modern human’s face: “modern people possess less prominent features but higher foreheads than our medieval ancestors”.

This is the original article:
W. P. Rock, A. M. Sabieha and R. I. W. Evans. 2006. A cephalometric comparison of skulls from the fourteenth, sixteenth and twentieth centuries. British Dental Journal. 200, 33-37. (abstract)

Looks like our children will have high foreheads and look like aliens

Update 19-02-2006:
I added more references to the text above.
Findings of the Global History of Health Project support exactly the same development, there is an article about it in The Sunday Times Scientists show we’ve been losing face for 10,000 years. The article also mentions other studies that find the same effect.

Another related interesting study:
Johnston, D. J. et al. 2005. The influence of lower face vertical proportion on facial attractiveness. European Journal of Orthodontics. 27 (4) pp. 349-354(6).
(abstract)

Update 23-10-2007:
The documentary was on television a second time on 29-07-2007.
More information, background, discussion and critique on 2 forums (in dutch):
freethinker.nl
skepp.be

Update 19-02-2008:
Canvas has a new website, the old links don’t work anymore so I removed them. I also added pictures that I saved from the Canvas page before it went down.

Tags: Evolution