Human Evolution: Bigger Brains, Smaller Faces
A new study published in Nature Communications challenges the long-held belief that human brain growth and facial reduction were driven primarily by natural selection. Researchers suggest these evolutionary changes may have been slower and less directed than previously thought.
A new study, published on July 6,2026 in the journal Nature Communications, suggests that two of the best-known trends in human evolution - brain growth and the reduction in the size of the face and jaw - may be far less attributable to directed natural selection than scientists have long assumed. Instead, the findings by researchers at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (SHEP) at the University of T bingen point to a slower and presumably more limited evolutionary process than the traditional textbook portrayal suggests.
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