Why modern humans have round heads

ScienceMag.org ^ | Dec 13, 2018 | Ann Gibbons

[ETL]

Neanderthal skulls (left) are elongated from front to back like a football. Modern human neonates (right) and infants (right, inner images)
also have somewhat elongated skulls, but by the time they reach adulthood, their heads have rounded out into a basketball-like shape.
PHILIPP GUNZ/CC BY-NC-ND

[ETL]

Who has a "round head"? Not me.

[ETL]

[Yo-Yo]

By analyzing traces of Neanderthal DNA that linger in Europeans from their ancestors' trysts,

Really? That's so condescending.

[fidelis]

[rx]

Denisovan DNA has been shown to be intermingled in some modern humans, though none of that particularly concerns the rounded skull question:

[centurion316]

It’s pretty simple. Skull size and shape is constrained by the birth canal. Once freed from the confines of the womb, the skull can grow and change shape to accommodate brain growth. Brainiacs end up looking like eggheads.

[Blueflag]

Exactly. Vaginal birth babies are cone heads, then the head rounds and the plates fuse.

C-section babies have round heads.

NOT SCIENCE: “Cradle a newborn and you’ll see that infants start life with elongated skulls, somewhat like Neanderthals”

[bert]

If you took solid geometry and understood rather than just memorized theorems (dig at girls) you would know that a sphere is the largest volume with the smallest surface area.

Therefore a round head (no references to Cromwell and the English revolution please) is the most efficient large brain container

[farming pharmer]

Unfortunately, modern skull design made it easier to put our heads up our asses...

[gov_bean_ counter]

This one should be good...

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks ETL, but this looks like more "why were Neandertals speechless" crap. At least the FACT that most people alive today still carry Neandertal DNA has started to seep into the barely functioning cerebral cortex of some of the jokers who kept asking for years the illogical "why did N go extinct?"

KEYWORDS: neandertal; neandertals; neanderthal; neanderthals

The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve
in local libraries

"Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]

[Red Badger]

So their hats fit, of course................

[tomkat]

Cuz it's easier to make hats for roundish heads ?   ;-)

[tomkat]

Damn, shoulda known .. lol !

[LeonardFMason]

EASY ANSWER.

Hats are round.

Sheesh. Hit me with a hard question.

[LeonardFMason]

EASY ANSWER.

Hats are round.

Sheesh. Hit me with a hard question.

[ek_hornbeck]

This is consistent with earlier theories suggesting that Neanderthal brain growth stopped in relatively early childhood (as in apes, though not quite as extreme) while our brains continue to develop into our teens and beyond. This would mean that Neanderthal brains may have been large, but didn’t have the high neuron density or connectivity that we do - the main reason they lost and we won.

[Autonomous User]

So we can't drink "Mass Quantities of Beer"?

[Brooklyn Attitude]

“Thanks ETL, but this looks like more “why were Neandertals speechless” crap.”

Is that an accepted fact because I would be really interested in how they determined that?