Is the human skull expanding?

This is my observation from about the year 2000.

In my observation, I have not only noticed, but received many comments from new parents/physicians and other observers that the majority of children born from about the year 2000 have much larger skulls than the average human skull. *It may go back even a few years earlier than the year 2000*

There is an increasing number of unnatural and Caesarean section deliveries which are due to the circumference of these babies' head/skull.

My point is; is that if there is some truth in this-and I will do some more research on this soon-then, could it be that humans are evolving in some way?

Any thoughts?

id check into birthweight trends, could be the result of better nutrition and medical care....

Or younger mothers with less developed child bearing areas ?

Maybe a little fear mixed with vanity about the big stretch ? (seriously)

My mom was 19 and I was big head Todd the monster , to this day I have a pointy head > It is called a "widows peak" and suposedly a sign of inteligence .

I call it my simian ridge .

I haven't heard of this before. I have heard that humans are evolving to become bigger and bigger over just the last few centuries. Of course I've also read that's just due to better sanitation, health, etc. I don't know, if you suddenly took a group of infants from a few hundred years ago and they still grew up 8 or more inches shorter and smaller than people today, that may be a sign that evolution is happening.

Here is a link indicating our brains have evolved in the recent geologic past.

www.jrn.columbia.edu...



[edit on 9-9-2004 by orionthehunter]

John Kerry's is getting smaller as time goes on.

Originally posted by oddtodd
Or younger mothers with less developed child bearing areas ?

Maybe a little fear mixed with vanity about the big stretch ? (seriously)

*Most* of these women are older and/or on their second child, atleast. Otherwise I'd agree with you on that one.

As for the second comment made... I don't know if I'm allowed to post the word v****a? But anyway I'll refer to this area as "v". Delivering a baby through the v canal is not the issue, as it is very elastic. I'm referrring to those women who are unable to deliver the baby through the pelvic bone(it is not elastitic)

Let's not get sidetracked, I'd like to keep the topic focused on skull size.

Mom worked for planned parenthood for 20 years , gonna run this one by her this weekend . Will get back to you ....

Here's a thought that may help back up your assumption .

During the final tri-mester , the baby to be puts most of its production time into brain growth by means of converting fat from the mother .

With such high fat eating habits becoming more rampant , maybe there is increased consumption by the baby from the mother .

Just a thought ...

The cesaerian section comment made earlier along with the comment on nutrition and medical care play a large role in cranial size increases....the gene that selects women to have a smaller pelvic regions is passed on everytime a woman gives birth unnaturally...

When an infant is born they're skull fragments are unfused to allow skull and brain development - the more nutrion they get and the more medical attention they recieve - the more likely they are to reach their full potential and pass on their genes....

Our brain size has increased from around 300-400cc to between 1300-1500cc - now that gap alone is worthy of further investigation....but we, being homo sapiens sapeins actually do not have the largest brains of the homo sapiens - the brain capacity of homo sapiens neandertalensis averaged at around 1600 cc....

Some people make the claim that neadertalensis never really died out - that they interbred with sapiens sapiens and their genes are still selectively expressed....I'm more of the belief that just like expected...we're still evolving - modern day scientists will say otherwise, but it's ludacris to me...they know the amount of time it takes for even the slightest of adaptations to occur, but yet they ignore it and say we have all our needs met and what is there left to evolve into? "We can only de-evolve," or some silly crap like that....eh....whatever....

[edit on 9/9/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

[edit on 9/9/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

take a look around people! we are living in an age of information. questions are posed far more frequently then ever in the history of man, we think more, we learn more, we teach more, and we know more. the vast resources of information at our disposal will expand our thoughts, ultimatly taking us to the next level of evolution. thus increasing our brain mass. im no scientist, just my opinion. the bigger brain the better! as long as we dont end up looking like our grey friends.

There's no support to the "larger head" theory that I can see from the statistics. More women are having caeserians, but that's from a desire to have a baby on a certain day/within a certain date range and not from any specific medical cause.
news.bbc.co.uk...

Originally posted by sturod84
take a look around people! we are living in an age of information. questions are posed far more frequently then ever in the history of man, we think more, we learn more, we teach more, and we know more. the vast resources of information at our disposal will expand our thoughts, ultimatly taking us to the next level of evolution. thus increasing our brain mass. im no scientist, just my opinion. the bigger brain the better! as long as we dont end up looking like our grey friends.

Well...The size of the brain and/or cranium of any animal has little to do with levels of intelligence - here's a quote from this website:

Indeed, increase of body size is normally accompanied by an increase in brain size, so that the elephant has a brain that weighs almost 5000 gm. and the brain of a whale may reach 10,000 gm. And yet for all that, in proportion to the weight of the body, the whale has a much smaller brain than man. This might seem to give man the edge, until it is discovered that the dwarf monkeys of South America, the marmosets, far surpass man in this respect, having 1 gram of brain per 27 gm. of body substance, whereas man has 1 gram of brain to 44 gm. of body substance. (Ref. 29) And man is surpassed even more in these proportions by the capuchin monkey with one gram of brain substance for 17.5 gm. of body substance. It is as Weidenreich observed, (Ref. 30) "Therefore, neither the absolute nor the relative size of the brain can be used to measure the degree of mental ability in animals or in man."

Originally posted by Byrd
More women are having caeserians, but that's from a desire to have a baby on a certain day/within a certain date range and not from any specific medical cause.

This is true...but there are many reasons why women have a c-section...look at the name - caeserian - It supposedly comes from the procedure that was required to give birth to caeser b/c his mother was dying during labor...

There are many factors that play into any increase or decrease in anatomical measurments....the increase of c-sections can be considered one factor out of many...

I thought that human skull got smaller because of evolution and we were able to store increased knowledge with the help of multiple folds in our brain.

I suggest you check the averages instead of the peak points. Some people's head could very well be larger than others, say because of environment conditions. Maybe bigger head is good in desert like conditions, like Africa, since many people here are from Africa, that could explain large heads, or something like that.

Well, people are gennerally stupid and need someplace to store all that "hot air" somewhere

Originally posted by Paladin327
Well, people are gennerally stupid and need someplace to store all that "hot air" somewhere

Yea it seems to me that a lot of people use 90% of their head for air storage.

Human brain size has been increasing all through history. The biggest increase came when humans first began to eat meat. Meat eating animals often have larger brains then plants eating animals. These is due to many things such as the increase of protein when you eat meat thats a hungry organ we got there, but also because it takes more brain power to hunt a animal then it does to hunt a plant.

Humans are eating meat more then ever and this will lead to bigger brains in time. Well except for vegetarians a couple of thousand generations of that and brain size might go down if not enough protein consumed.




''The average brain size of Homo habilis, far left above, who lived approximately 2 million years ago, was 750 cc. Homo erectus (next skull to the right) shows this transition most dramatically, indicating that most of the evolutionary increase in brain size took place during the life of this species. Early Homo erectus in Africa (from about 1.7 to 1 million years ago) averaged 900 cc in brain size, but later Homo erectus specimens from .5 million years ago average 1100-1200 cc, which falls within the range of the brain size of modern humans. The earliest or archaic forms of Homo sapiens, the species to which we belong (top center skull), dates to 300,000-400,000 years ago and averages over 1200 cc. The Neanderthal skull, second from right, has a brain size of 1500 cc, which is actually larger than the brains of most modern humans. The average for ourselves, Homo sapiens sapiens, is around 1400 cc.''

I dont think we have seen anything yet. Evolution never stops

www.wsu.edu... lture-humans-2two.html

[edit on 9-9-2004 by ShadowXIX]

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
...but also because it takes more brain power to hunt a animal then it does to hunt a plant....

Hunting plants is very hard work. I have to put on camoflauge to blend in with the rest of the plants and then stake them out. I have to be carefull not to drive the bloom back into hiding. It is very hard work to hunt them.

Originally posted by TACHYON

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
...but also because it takes more brain power to hunt a animal then it does to hunt a plant....

Hunting plants is very hard work. I have to put on camoflauge to blend in with the rest of the plants and then stake them out. I have to be carefull not to drive the bloom back into hiding. It is very hard work to hunt them.

Yeah those Mexican jumping beans can be quite sneaky

I think a great example are the large plant eating dinosaurs they were the biggest land animals ever and the had brains the size of walnuts. You really dont need much brain power to eat plants all day.

Modern humans are eating more and more meat and are having to live in more complex times then our ancestors ever dreamed of. I think this will lead to bigger and bigger brains for humans.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX

Originally posted by TACHYON

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
...but also because it takes more brain power to hunt a animal then it does to hunt a plant....

Hunting plants is very hard work. I have to put on camoflauge to blend in with the rest of the plants and then stake them out. I have to be carefull not to drive the bloom back into hiding. It is very hard work to hunt them.

Yeah those Mexican jumping beans can be quite sneaky

I think a great example are the large plant eating dinosaurs they were the biggest land animals ever and the had brains the size of walnuts. You really dont need much brain power to eat plants all day.

Well, cows are generally kept pretty stupid, but they can still learn certain things and act very individually, some are very friendly while others can be pretty hostile. (but still friendly to some persons)

Modern humans are eating more and more meat and are having to live in more complex times then our ancestors ever dreamed of. I think this will lead to bigger and bigger brains for humans.

Well... at least it has lead to "horizontally wider" body.

Propably that bigger head is just needed to store those big self-centred egoes and fantasies of human superiority over nature.
And for some people head really seems to be just place to carry hat.

[edit on 10-9-2004 by E_T]

Originally posted by E_T
Well, cows are generally kept pretty stupid, but they can still learn certain things and act very individually, some are very friendly while others can be pretty hostile. (but still friendly to some persons)

Im sure there are some examples of smart plant eaters most likely herd/group animals I would think as that would require more brain power for group interaction. I thought of the Gorilla at first but forgot they are known to eat insects such as ants.

I would say in general predators are smarter though some scavengers might rank up just as high as the predators.

I wonder what exactly do they feed modern cows? Im sure they are feed stuff that they would not normally eat. I wonder if some of the feed is high protein.

We might be effecting cow evolution with how much we intervene with them.