The Shape of our Faces

Origins of Us - Guts

Meat eating is thought to have changed the shape of our faces. Dr Peter Ungar is a world authority on our ancestors faces and teeth. He's been looking at how a changing diet might have affected the shape of our ancestor's jaws.

Dr Ungar "If you look at the earlier human ancestor, they are large flat teeth and kind of bulbous in shape. But when we move on to Homo erectus, what you see here is you see smaller teeth. Thinner tooth enamel. And, in fact the face has responded, as well. It's much more slender, what we call gracile. Without the big heavy chewing muscles."

Homo erectus skull

The cheek bones are very neat. Dr Ungar "This is much more human-like in its general configuration." Homo erectus' smaller teeth meant a smaller jaw. And he lost that ape-like snout of earlier ancestors like Austrlopithecus. With a flatter face shape, Homo erectus looks much more like a modern human.