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Technician

Don't Get A Big Head, White America

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American Heads Are Getting Bigger

The heads of white Americans have become larger, taller and narrower since the 19th century, a new study says.

The forensic anthropologists at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, did not pinpoint a reason for the changing head shapes or know whether it is primarily due to evolution or lifestyle changes.

"The varieties of changes that have swept American life make determining an exact cause an endlessly complicated proposition," Lee Jantz, coordinator of UT's Forensic Anthropology Center, said in a university news release.

"It likely results from modified growth patterns because of better nutrition, lower infant and maternal mortality, less physical work and a breakdown of former ethnic barriers to marriage," Jantz said. "Which of these is paramount we do not know."

The team examined 1,500 skulls dating from the mid-1800s to the mid-1980s and found that the average height from the base to the top of the skull in men increased by eight millimeters (0.3 inches), while skull size grew by 200 cubic centimeters, a space equivalent to a tennis ball.

In women, skull height increased by seven millimeters and skull size increased by 180 cubic centimeters.

Overall, skull height has increased 6.8 percent since the late 1800s, compared with a 5.6 increase in body height and a 2 percent increase in femur (thigh bone) length. The researchers also noted that skull height has continued to change while the increase in body height has recently slowed or stopped.

The study also found evidence that Americans are maturing earlier. An opening in a certain bone structure of the skull used to close at about age 20, but is now fusing at age 14 in girls and age 16 in boys.

This could be due to rising rates of childhood obesity, which may affect hormones in ways that alter timing of growth and maturation, the researchers suggested.

Jantz said researchers have documented less dramatic shifts in skull shape in Europe.

The study was recently presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.

Data and conclusions presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

No, it's becasue of all that there evolvin' stuff they're forcing into our kids heads, I tells yah.

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Awesome. After all, wasn't the increased skull size the thing that made humans different from the other apes?

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The heads of white Americans have become larger, taller and narrower since the 19th century, a new study says.


It's just preparation for the dick heads they'll be having few thousand years from now.

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I actually find interesting that heads are growing "taller and narrower". It sounds like the advanced aliens commonly described in fiction. But why only Americans and not Europeans too? They're the same race...

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Americans will eventually evolve into a form similar to your typical big headed alians in the distant future.

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Something like the Caponians in Zak McKracken?

printz said:

But why only Americans and not Europeans too? They're the same race...

I can only assume that in Europe the drinking water isn't being spiked with rainbows.

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I remember back in 3rd grade some Hispanic kid kept calling me big white head and reading this article could be some sort of premonition of what he was talking about O_o

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printz said:

Awesome. After all, wasn't the increased skull size the thing that made humans different from the other apes?

Not exactly. Brain size in proportion to body mass may be a rough indicator of intelligence, but it doesn't tell you everything. There are creatures that have a larger ratio than we do but certainly aren't writing poetry. There are also creatures with a much smaller ratio, that we know are very intelligent, the elephant being a good example.

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This article makes my pride gland swell, which is located inside my skull...

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GreyGhost said:

Something like the Caponians in Zak McKracken?

I can only assume that in Europe the drinking water isn't being spiked with rainbows.


Rainbows taste spicy. That's why America is rule!

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Quast said:

Not exactly. Brain size in proportion to body mass may be a rough indicator of intelligence, but it doesn't tell you everything. There are creatures that have a larger ratio than we do but certainly aren't writing poetry. There are also creatures with a much smaller ratio, that we know are very intelligent, the elephant being a good example.


Dolphans would be smarter than humans, if only they had thumbs!

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Is it not predicted that the human race may diverge in the far far future? There will be a race of tall, slim humans with superior intelligence and a stunted, squat goblin-like underclass? You could argue that is the case already. :P

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Captain Toenail said:

Is it not predicted that the human race may diverge in the far far future? There will be a race of tall, slim humans with superior intelligence and a stunted, squat goblin-like underclass? You could argue that is the case already. :P

Assuming we're not wiped out by the unexpected side-effects of a cure for the common cold, I foresee a future where we have survivalists, zombies and Westboro Baptists living more-or-less side by side.

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