How fighting changed our faces

I'm afraid that I need to get back on transcribing Herb's letters, because as of now, the next letter I have is from November 1917. I am optimistic that I will find some letters between August and November - and maybe some will have answers, like what is Karolyn's last name.

In the meantime, I thought I would share some tidbits from my favorite magazine, The Week.

As it is, I thought this blurb from the Jun 27th edition was of interest:

Men may have evolved to take a punch in the face. That’s the conclusion of a radical new theory suggesting that our male ancestors developed more robust brows, jaws, cheeks, and molars for protection during fights over mates, food, and other resources. The conclusions are based on an examination of the facial structures of Australopithecus—the immediate predecessors of the human genus Homo—compared with those of apes and modern humans. “It turns out that the parts of the face that became stronger were the parts of the face that most frequently break when modern humans fight,” evolutionary biologist David Carrier tells LiveScience.com. The theory builds on earlier work suggesting that the modern hand—with its flexible thumb, squared palm, and shorter digits—was adapted for aggression. Researchers note that the ability to form a fist entered the fossil record about 4 million years ago, around the same time that males developed their thicker facial features.

The evolution of man incorporated the adaption for getting hit in the face. What a horrible commentary about the animal which is taking over the planet....