RT Journal Article
T1 The evolutionary history of the human face
A1 Lacruz, Rodrigo S.
A1 Stringer, Chris B.
A1 Kimbel, William H.
A1 Wood, Bernard
A1 Harvati, Katerina
A1 O’Higgins, Paul
A1 Bromage, Timothy G.
A1 Arsuaga Ferreras, Juan Luis
AB The face is the most distinctive feature used to identify others. Modern humans have a short, retracted face beneath a large globular braincase that is distinctively different from that of our closest living relatives. The face is a skeletal complex formed by 14 individual bones that houses parts of the digestive, respiratory, visual and olfactory systems. A key to understanding the origin and evolution of the human face is analysis of the faces of extinct taxa in the hominin clade over the last 6 million years. Yet, as new fossils are recovered and the number of hominin species grows, the question of how and when the modern human face originated remains unclear. By examining key features of the facial skeleton, here we evaluate the evolutionary history of the modern human face in the context of its development, morphology and function, and suggest that its appearance is the result of a combination of biomechanical, physiological and social influences.
PB Nature Research
SN 2397-334X
YR 2019
FD 2019
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/13793
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/13793
LA eng
NO Unión Europea. H2020
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO)/FEDER
NO Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
NO Fundación Ramón Areces
NO Natural History Museum, London
DS Docta Complutense
RD 11 abr 2025