Human faces now have a different shape because of all the processed foods we eat

Scientists say that human faces shrink as we eat more processed foods.

An international team of archaeologists has followed the evolution of the human face that has thinned over the last 100,000 years.

Neanderthals and monkeys have a pronounced forehead crest and large faces with larger teeth. Ours started to become narrower when we learned to cook, which meant we needed less powerful teeth and jaws to eat.

Researchers, including York and Hull Universities, have traced the evolution of faces since early humans, of African descent up to our contemporaries.

The author of the study, Paul O'Higgins, professor of anatomy at York University, said: "More modern diets and industrialized societies can mean that the human face continues to decline.

"There are, however, limits to what the human face can change, for example, breathing requires a sufficiently large nasal cavity.

"However, within these limits, the evolution of the human face will likely continue as long as our species will survive, migrate and meet new environmental, social and cultural conditions."

The human face has also evolved so that we can be more sociable and more expressive with our eyebrows, say the scientists.

Humans have developed a smooth forehead capable of a greater range of movements to express subtle emotions, from recognition to sympathy.

According to scientists, hairy eyebrows were more important for human social development in complex societies.

Human faces have shrunk dramatically as we go from farmer-gatherers to hunting, producing corn and wheat to make staple foods such as bread.

The theory is published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Professor O'Higgins added, "We know that other factors such as diet, respiratory physiology and climate have helped shape the modern human face, but interpreting its evolution solely in terms of these factors would be a simplification. excessive.

"We can now use our faces to signal more than 20 different categories of emotions via muscle contraction or relaxation.

"It is unlikely that our early human ancestors had the same facial dexterity as the general shape of the face and the positions of the muscles were different."