The Atlantic:
“It’s really strange that only humans have chins,” says James Pampush from Duke University. “When we’re looking at things that are uniquely human, we can’t look to big brains or bipedalism because our extinct relatives had those. But they didn’t have chins. That makes this immediately relevant to everyone.”
Indeed, except in rare cases involving birth defects, everyone has chins. Sure, some people have less pronounced ones than others, perhaps because their lower jaws are small or they have more flesh around the area. But if you peeled back that flesh and exposed their jawbones—and maybe don’t do that—you’d still see a chin.
So, why do chins exist?
In the category of “things I wasn’t expecting to think about today”, I would put high on the list, “Why do human beings have chins?” It’s actually a very interesting article and, spoiler alert, scientists really don’t know why.
I’ll take “Questions that come up when you’re stoned” for $100, Alex.
What kind of nonsense is this? Looking at both gorilla and chimp skulls I see a chin.
So we claim to know how the entire universe and everything on earth was made, but don’t know why we have chins or how to cure a cold, eh? What arrogant creatures we are.
Oh, hush. We don’t claim anything of the sort. We have indeed learned a bit, and we’re continuing to learn more.
Actually, our brains are unique in that as our brains got bigger, our synapses stayed the same size, so we got more of them, and got smarter. Other animal brains got bigger and their synapses also got bigger, so they had the same number, and the same intelligence. For example, whale synapses are huge. They have massive brains with less processing power than any human.
Also unique: human hand. The only opposable thumb. The only hand made for tools.
The reason we have chins is because we rest them on our hands when we are thinking with our synapse-filled brains. Unique hand equals unique jaw.
I always thought we had a chin is the Lower Jaw Boone supporting our teeth!