{"id":3421,"date":"2020-05-19T21:16:28","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T21:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emborawild.com\/?p=3421"},"modified":"2020-08-19T08:02:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-19T08:02:00","slug":"what-animals-have-chins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emborawild.com\/what-animals-have-chins\/","title":{"rendered":"What animals have chins?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elephants, manatees and we\u00a0modern humans are the only animals with chins; whether sculpted, cleft, weak or strong ones. No other members of the animals kingdom aside the three animals mentioned above have been observed to have chins.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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What is a chin?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

A chin is basically the lump of bone that protrudes forward from the anterior part of lower jaw (underneath the lower lips), and for some mysterious reasons, only elephants, manatees and modern humans (you and me) and known to posses one.
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Our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees, gorillas and bonbons don\u2019t actually have this protrusion, despite the strong similarities we share with each ine of them.
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Their jaws basically slant backwards from their teeth instead of creating a bone that actually makes a protrusion underneath their lower lip. Even archaic human species like the Neanderthals and homo erectus had no chin, their jaw morphologically terminated in a flat vertical plane.<\/span><\/p>\n

The chin is actually the main characteristics that set modern humans apart from their archaic ancestors, and indeed, scientists are fond of employing this feature as a way of distinguishing between our skulls and those of these extinct relatives; the Neanderthals, homo erectus, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our chin is the only trait that uniquely and exclusively belongs to us, not big brains or bipedal as these extinct relatives of ours and other members of the mammalian group also had\/have them respectively. So there we go, something to at least stroke on and be highly confident about!<\/p>\n

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How does the lower jaw area of other animals look like?<\/span><\/strong>
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Aside from the three animal groups mentioned above, all other skull-possesing members of the animals kingdom have lower jaws that immediately slope inwards from their lower teeth, meaning there\u2019s no bony extension in front of their jaw to act as chins (take a look at the picture below).<\/span><\/p>\n

In humans, elephants and manatees however, the lower jaw extends beyond the lower teeth, birthing a small bony protrusion which acts as the \u201cchin\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"What<\/p>\n

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Why do humans have chins?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The question why humans have chins is one that has been in existence for more than a century now and has close to a dozen postulated theories seeking to provide an answer. But surprisingly, almost all of these theories have fallen flat against scrutiny, with each having one of them having their own major poke that primarily dilutes the possibility of the theory being an answer.<\/p>\n

There are very few theories, often the newer ones however, that have not yet been proven wrong by evolutionary biology, either because they\u2019re still under scrutiny or have indeed undergone one but still managed to stand firmly up against it, but even these theories have not yet provided substantial enough evidence to be able prove clearly the case for their claim.\u00a0Maybe somewhere in the future they would, who knows?<\/p>\n

Anyways, it\u2019ll be unfitting to start a talk on the theories explaining the reason behind the protrusion that made Jay Leno a hollywood hit without actually mentioning one or two of them. So\u00a0here are some of the postulated theories and the holes poked at them from recent revisions.
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Postulated theories<\/strong><\/h2>\n