Compared with other human relatives such as Neanderthals, modern Homo sapiens have particularly prominent chins. Some researchers have hypothesized that the modern human chin helps the jaw stand up to the forces generated by chewing.
A new study by Nathan Holton, an anthropologist at the University of Iowa, found that the development of the chin doesn't seem to have anything to do with resistance to bending stresses. Instead the prominence of the chin may simply be a side effect of the rest of the face evolving to be smaller.
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