When you take random people from the same family, you will notice they all have distinct facial features. For example, your mother looks different from your father, while your father does not look like your sister. But when you pick random animals in a sanctuary, you will notice that most animals almost look the same. Their facial features are not as distinct as those of humans. So, why do people look different, but animals have similar facial features?
Humans have a wide range of facial features and appearances. For example, a person’s eye shape, cheekbones, nose, and bone structure differ. Although animals also have distinct facial features, their uniformity is always evident.
Why do humans look different from one another? Generally, many factors contribute to this unique facial characteristic between animals and humans, including evolution, genetics, environmental influences, and individual variation.
Why do people look different?
The modern human face has undergone millions of years of evolution. It has been moulded by a person’s need to communicate, eat, breathe, and see. According to a study by the University of California, Berkeley, evolutionary pressure contributes to humans' diverse faces.
The human brain recognises faces and distinguishes between individuals through facial perception. That has made humans rely more on vision for social interactions. Thus, having a unique facial feature makes it easier to recognise an individual.
Another factor is that humans have cognitive ability that helps them recognise specific faces. As a result, they use their cognitive ability to connect faces and get information from a specific individual or about a certain person.
Why do all our faces look different?
It is worth it to look at diet. The human diet has changed since the evolution of the human species. It has also played a significant role in the evolution of the human face. Here is how:
Tough plant foods
Early humans ate tough plant foods that required more chewing. The constant chewing led to larger jaw muscles and a more robust skull.
Cooking
After eating tough foods for a while, humans discovered fire. The discovery made it easier for humans to cook food. The cooked food became softer, required less chewing, and was easier to digest.
This further led to a reduction in jaw and teeth size. In other words, the need for strong teeth became unnecessary, unlike before when humans had pronounced brow ridges and broad faces with more prominent teeth.
Processed food
The industrial revolution made humans aware of various technologies for processing food. Consumption of processed foods led to changes in the shape of the face. Archaeologists now believe that the human face is shrinking because of the continued consumption of processed food.
Social skills
Humans are social beings and require excellent social skills for their survival. The need for social skills has played a small role in the evolution of the human face. Human faces are different from one another compared to the bonobos, chimpanzees, and Neanderthals, which all lack social skills.
Why do animals look the same but humans look different?
From an early age, humans are trained on the faces they encounter. They keep this information in their brain and use it later for social interactions. But this is different with animals.
Animals may have the eyes to see things around them. However, they do not use them to identify individuals. Instead, animals rely heavily on smell or vocalisation to identify individuals. Because of this trait, the distinctive facial features in animals become unimportant.
Nocturnal animals and birds are excellent examples of species that rely on smell or vocalisation to identify their surroundings. Animals and birds use their strong sense of smell or hearing to help them navigate in the dark. Since their vision is irrelevant, it explains why animals have similar facial features.
Animals also look the same because of camouflage. While camouflage varies significantly across animal species, it is used by many animals to hide their appearance and blend into their surroundings. Camouflage helps animals evade predators or hunt their prey without being seen.
When did humans start looking different?
Humans started looking different from the Homo sapiens period. The Homo sapiens period was over 300,000 years ago. When this period ended, there was an evolution of the modern human face.
The evolution was partly caused by humans' need for good social skills. As a result, the human face evolved by combining several social, physiological, and biomechanical influences.
Scientists have also pointed out that the earth’s climate played a role in the evolution of the human face. As the climate changed, it tripled the human skull and brain. That led to the flattening of the face compared to the Homo sapiens.
Does breathing affect the shape of the human face?
The way a person breathes determines the shape of their face. Ideally, one should always breathe through their nose. However, breathing through the mouth can change the growth pattern of the face. As a result, it can lead to functional and morphological alterations in the face.
When a person breathes while their lips are open, this can lead to a backwardly rotated face and a larger lower facial height. Also, breathing through the mouth can alter a person's facial structure and prevent the development of the jaw and face.
Breathing through the mouth also prevents the proper use of the muscles in the face and neck, leading to changes in the facial structure. Mouth breathing can be worse in children because they may develop a mouth-breathing face with narrow faces and their chins and jaws receding.
What makes humans different from each other?
Many factors make humans different from each other. Therefore, having a unique facial feature makes it easier to recognise an individual. Here are some things that make humans different:
Genetics
The genetic makeup of all humans is unique. The genes contribute to differences in physical appearance and characteristics in humans. In other words, genetics determine the body's shape, hair type, and skin and eye colour.
Environment
Environmental factors like exposure to the sun and toxins, nutrition, stress levels, and work contribute to differences between humans. Also, diseases determine human variability.
Facial features
Humans have a wide range of facial features and appearances. Each individual has unique characteristics such as eye shape, bone structure, cheekbones, and nose shape. The diversity results from a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
Are human faces still evolving?
Although human faces have undergone evolution for millions of years, the faces are still evolving. One factor contributing to this is food, whereby better cooking skills enable man to process food more efficiently and chew less. That will result in changes in the cheekbones and jaws, reshaping the face further.
Why do people look different and unique? - Wrapping up
So, why do people look different, but animals have similar facial features? Generally, factors like evolution, genetics, environmental influences, and individual variation have contributed to distinct facial features between humans. Also, humans are social beings. Therefore, they rely heavily on their vision for social interactions.
Tuko.co.ke shared an article about skinwalkers. The question of their existence has lingered in the minds of curious people for a long time. In addition, their appearances in movies and TV shows haven’t improved the situation.
The idea of a person transforming into an animal is unfathomable and left to conspiracy theorists to demystify. Therefore, it is upon you to believe the story, but the bottom line is that there haven’t been any substantiated findings that prove their existence.
