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# Did Human Faces Evolve To Take A Punch?

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/9L0StWBA.m3u8" -->
## Video: Did Human Faces Evolve To Take A Punch?

[Watch (HLS stream): Did Human Faces Evolve To Take A Punch?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/9L0StWBA.m3u8) (1:25)

![Did Human Faces Evolve To Take A Punch?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/9L0StWBA/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2014-06-09. To protect themselves animals do whatever it takes to survive — wings, camouflage, poisonous venom, etc. Researchers say humans are no different. A study from the University of Utah says, human faces evolved over time to minimize injury from punches._


---

Jul 27, 2023 4:47 PM UTC

---

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---


## Transcript

To protect themselves, animals do whatever it takes to survive, wings, camouflage, poisonous venom, et cetera, and humans are no different. Come on, hit me before I lose my nerve. New research suggests humans had to adapt to deal with its number one threat too. Other humans punching us in the face. A study from the University of Utah says human faces evolved over time to minimize injury from punches to the face. When modern humans fight hand- to- hand the face is usually the primary target. What we found was that the bones that suffer the highest rates of fracture in fights are the same parts of the skull that exhibited the greatest increase in robusticity.

The study also says this evolution in skull strength came around the same time humans developed the hand proportions to form a fist. In other words, as soon as our ancestors learned to make a fist, they couldn't think of anything better to do with it than hunt, gather and punch that one guy. Pow, right in the kisser. But this theory leads to a bigger question. If human faces was shaped by violence, are we as humans inherently violent creatures? Our ancestors were quite a fight, a violent bunch. Male- to- male competition was very important, and certainly the human historical record suggests that aggression is important.

The long standing hypothesis, now challenged by this study, is the human face changed, so humans could chew hard to crush foods. The new study was published in the journal Biological Reviews. Thanks for watching, I'm Jamal Andress.

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