04.09.09
Neotonous nerds and baby face chimps
Why we have edge on apes
Deborah Smith
April 9, 2009
A FLAT face, big eyes, small brows, little chin and patchy hair. Adult people look a lot like baby chimps.
These similarities underpin an idea first proposed more than 170 years ago, that our species underwent a developmental delay during its evolution, which resulted in mature humans retaining some of the features of juvenile apes.
Not only do we look babyish, this process, called neoteny, could also help explain why we are so much smarter than our chimp cousins, despite having almost identical DNA to them.
It meant our brains gained extra time during a long childhood in which to master complex feats like language, said Cyndi Shannon-Weickert, a researcher in the school of psychiatry at the University of NSW.