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Early Humans Had Nutcracker Jaws
LiveScience.com ^ | Feb. 3, 2009 | LiveScience Staff

Posted on 02/03/2009 12:13:55 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY

Our ancient human relatives had jaws like nutcrackers that allowed the hominids to chomp down on hard nuts and seeds and adapt to changes in food sources in their environment, a new computer simulation reveals.

Today's humans have comparatively small faces and teeth, making us ill-equipped to bite down forcefully on hard objects. Apparently that wasn't the case for Australopithecus africanus , which lived 3.3 million to 2.5 million years ago.

An international team of researchers used computed tomography scanning to digitally recreate an A. africanus skull to see how the jaw operated and what forces it could produce. Then, they added measurements of how the facial muscles work in chimpanzees , which share common features with Australopithecus .

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; notwitha10ftpole
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1 posted on 02/03/2009 12:13:55 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
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To: Free ThinkerNY

monicus lewinskus?


2 posted on 02/03/2009 12:15:22 PM PST by Buck W. (BHO: Selling hope, keeping the change.)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

...”Our ancient human relatives had jaws like nutcrackers that allowed the hominids to chomp down on hard nuts”...

I thought all hominids like to chomp on hard nuts...?


3 posted on 02/03/2009 12:17:00 PM PST by astounded (The democrat party is a clear and present danger to America)
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To: Free ThinkerNY
Jaws nothing


4 posted on 02/03/2009 12:17:32 PM PST by Vaquero ( "an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

5 posted on 02/03/2009 12:18:18 PM PST by JennysCool (Internet Powerhouse)
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To: Free ThinkerNY
That's nothing, some of today's humans have nutcracker cankles.


6 posted on 02/03/2009 12:19:48 PM PST by OB1kNOb (Quinn's 1st Law - Liberalism always generates the exact opposite of its original intent.)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

That explains the squarish look to the faces on Egyptian hieroglyphics?


7 posted on 02/03/2009 12:20:59 PM PST by WayneS (Respect the 2nd Amendment; Repeal the 16)
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To: Vaquero; JennysCool

Great minds............ ;-)


8 posted on 02/03/2009 12:21:04 PM PST by OB1kNOb (Quinn's 1st Law - Liberalism always generates the exact opposite of its original intent.)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Did the computer simulate harder teeth, also?


9 posted on 02/03/2009 12:22:05 PM PST by bubbacluck
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To: Free ThinkerNY

“Our ancient human relatives had [big thick] jaws”

this is the same tripe that had aboriginies in zoos because of their “thick big jaws”

by this evolutionist thinking, aboriginies are “less evolved”.

which is nonsense. anyone can develop a thick jaw IN THEIR LIFETIME by eating hard foods. a study of the habitually unshod found that their feet bones became EXACTLY the same as “ancient man”.

these studies are meaningless. their outcome is decided before they are even carried out.


10 posted on 02/03/2009 12:37:18 PM PST by chuck_the_tv_out
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To: chuck_the_tv_out
evolutionists are racists. aborigines' thick jaw is not proof they are "less evolved"

11 posted on 02/03/2009 12:39:52 PM PST by chuck_the_tv_out
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To: Free ThinkerNY
heavy tooth enamel

curious that modern humans would lose this very necessary-to-survival attribute.

12 posted on 02/03/2009 12:42:20 PM PST by blueplum
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To: Free ThinkerNY

I’ve got 100 horsepower jaws but my teeth are only rated to 50.


13 posted on 02/03/2009 12:44:04 PM PST by DManA
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To: Free ThinkerNY

For cracking nuts...Instead of hitting them with a rock?? Sure....I believe even gorillas use rocks to crack them.


14 posted on 02/03/2009 12:46:10 PM PST by Sacajaweau (I'm planting corn...Have to feed my car...)
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To: Vaquero

Is this a real product?


15 posted on 02/03/2009 12:54:29 PM PST by tbw2 (Freeper sci-fi - "Humanity's Edge" - on amazon.com)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Our current jaws are more than ample for cracking nuts. Its our teeth that aren’t, and theire teeth weren’t much different from ours.


16 posted on 02/03/2009 1:10:50 PM PST by SampleMan (Community Organizer: What liberals do when they run out of college, before they run out of Marxism.)
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To: Free ThinkerNY
If they had Nutcracker moustaches, that would be news.


17 posted on 02/03/2009 2:08:47 PM PST by x
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To: tbw2

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UB0004/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=2209037351&ref=pd_sl_1kctj022h_b

yup!


18 posted on 02/03/2009 2:38:44 PM PST by Vaquero ( "an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

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19 posted on 02/03/2009 5:56:45 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: blueplum

It’s probably due to a common vitamin K2 deficiency.


20 posted on 02/03/2009 7:15:15 PM PST by MetaThought
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