The human face is unique in evolution – The Universal

A scientific study, based in part on fossil of the Spanish site of Atapuerca (North) and published Monday in the journal Nature Communications It concludes that the pattern face of Homo sapiens is “unique in human evolution,” the Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos.

The study was conducted by a team paleoanthropologists with broad international participation Spanish, including the scientific director of the museum and co-director of Atapuerca, Juan Luis Arsuaga, and studies the evolution of the skeleton of the human face in the last two million years.

researchers of this study concluded that the histological pattern seen in Homo sapiens, with large areas of bone resorption in the facial area, is unique in the human evolution .

growth model face Homo erectus Neanderthal and fossils from the Sima de los Huesos in Sierra Atapuerca remains, however, a primitive pattern , where there are virtually only tank in the face and bone resorption does not exist or is minimal.

Only in the case of Homo antecessor of the Gran Dolina, in the Sierra de Atapuerca, the growth model might look modern, but for now there is only one individual, rather incomplete, which can, in part, studied the histology of the surface of the face.

The method was used in this work was to examine electron microscopy and confocal surface of the bones of the face of individuals in the development process, so as to distinguish the areas where bone others in which the bone is resorbed is deposited.

During the facial development, facial bones grow mainly in areas where bone deposition occurs.

In areas where resorption predominates, growth is much more limited.

That difference in the dynamics of these processes makes the modern human face has highlighted, it is “sculpted” with prominent cheekbones, for example, and it is vertical instead of projecting forward on a hill, while in apes there is only bone deposition and therefore the entire face forward during growth.

The first author of the work is Rodrigo Lacruz, a Spanish professor at New York University, who says that the study ensures that facial growth patterns in Neanderthals and the Pit of Bones at Atapuerca are very different from today’s man.

Juan Luis Arsuaga says it is a “very important” discovery because It confirms that the present human species has many original features, unique features not found in Neanderthals and other human species that have existed.

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